Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Iowa Caucus Wins for Obama and Huckabee; Behind the Numbers: Iowa's Key Issues; Missing Hiker Search; Britney Spear's Breakdown

Aired January 04, 2008 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Victory in Iowa.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are one nation. We are one people, and our time for change has come!

MICK HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love Iowa a whole lot.

ROBERTS: Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama ride a record turnout to the top. This morning, the speech everyone will be talking about, and the next steps for the runners up.

Plus, breaking news. Britney Spears rushed to the hospital overnight. The police called in a fight over her children.

And western front, drenching rains, blizzard conditions, live with extreme weather on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Going to be some interesting snowfall in the state of California over the next couple of days. We'll be watching that closely for you.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Possibly 10 feet in some of the areas around the Sierra Nevada range.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Wonderful.

Welcome back and thanks for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's Friday, the 4th of January. I'm John Roberts.

CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. If you went to bed last night before all the --

ROBERTS: If you went to bed.

CHETRY: Yes. It was really hard to because it was very exciting. We were all just sort of laying there checking our blackberries and watching television because it was very exciting last night. Round one is over, and two relative newcomers both of whom no one really thought at least on the GOP side especially even some months ago that he had a shot. Mike Huckabee ended up being the winner last night for the GOP, and Barack Obama taking it for the Democrats.

ROBERTS: Yes. Now, we mentioned that not many people have been to sleep. I wonder if people who hasn't been to sleep as Hillary Clinton, her plane, we got some video here, just touched down in New Hampshire. There it is. That's lovely. You know, I saw that yesterday at the airport in Des Moines. It's a lovely, I think it's a G3 or a G4. That's the way to travel, I'll tell you.

CHETRY: She didn't offer you a ride, huh?

ROBERTS: No, she didn't. So she's there in New Hampshire. Don't forget there's a couple of debates this weekend about the Republicans and the Democrats, and then it's off to the very first primary in the nation on Tuesday night. Everybody wondering how that one is going to shape up, but there she is. Hillary Clinton arriving in the state of New Hampshire.

CHETRY: That's right so we'll be talking more about that this morning. Also, a little while ago we talked about Mitt Romney and his wife touching down as well. On to the next thing, months and months of preparation and now round one is done and as we said, two relative newcomers winning the Iowa caucuses and now gaining that momentum and coverage as they head into the 2008 presidential race.

Next stop as we said, New Hampshire. Freshman Senator Barack Obama making history last night, an eight-point victory over John Edwards. A record breaking number of first-time caucus-goers showing up to stand up Obama. More than half of the voters said they wanted a candidate who can bring about change. And, of course, that's been Obama's theme from the start.

Also, many of you might not have even known his name six months ago. Out of obscurity, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took Iowa within nine-point win over the favored candidate, Mitt Romney. He was pulling in a single digit just weeks ago, did not have the cash or the organization of some of the other candidates. But entrance polling showing that religious voters may have put the minister over the top, evangelical voters picking him 2:1 over Mitt Romney in Iowa.

ROBERTS: So what was it that propelled Huckabee and Obama to the top? We'll analyze why voters connected with them, and what's next for all of the candidates.

This hour, we're talking with CNN's Joe Johns. He is still in Des Moines and our chief national correspondent John King joins us now in New York. Boy, if you wanted a better political story, I don't know where you'd go to find it.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. The Republican from Hope, Arkansas, and the Democrats who says his slogan is hope are two incredibly different men, John, but in sending them on to New Hampshire with this huge fresh momentum, Iowa sent a very clear message.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): Iowa's verdict is change.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment. This was the place where America remembered what it means to hope.

KING: And more change.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A new day is needed in American politics, just like a new day is needed in American government. And tonight, it starts here, in Iowa.

KING: The first votes dramatically reshaped the race for president, in both parties, new and different, winning out over candidates more familiar.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now you know we have always planned to run a national campaign.

KING: And with deeper pockets.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You win the silver in one event. It doesn't mean you're not going to come back and win the gold in the final event and that we're going to do.

KING: On now to New Hampshire and Barack Obama sent us a chance to deliver the knockout blow.

OBAMA: They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high.

KING: Democratic turnout was way up, and Obama's victory was convincing. Senator John Edwards vowed to fight on, while senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd bowed out. But the biggest question among Democrats is whether Senator Clinton has the resilience that became her husband's trademark.

CLINTON: Who will be the best president on day one? I am ready for that contest!

KING: Questions for Republicans, too. Evangelicals powered the big Huckabee win in Iowa, but the former Baptist preacher faces more difficult terrain in libertarian New Hampshire. Senator John McCain is the favorite there now and under attack by Romney who can ill afford to lose again. McCain, as his rival, is ignoring Iowa's lesson.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That negative campaigns don't work. They don't work there, and they don't work here in New Hampshire. They're not going to work.

KING: Round one changed just about everything. Round two now just five days away. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: And already you see the evidence of how much Iowa has changed things, John. Mitt Romney on the flight from Iowa to New Hampshire, what word did he say over and over again? Change. He said we need to change Washington. He's trying to say John McCain is part of the problem in Washington, so the attack ads are up in New Hampshire, the debates you mentioned this weekend.

Nobody can understand how this works to compress the calendar just five days between Iowa and New Hampshire. But on this morning as we speak, Democrats think if Barack Obama can beat Hillary Clinton again in New Hampshire, he will be very hard to stop and Republicans think OK, our race was confusing to begin with then more so now.

ROBERTS: But it looks like the Republican race could drag on and on and on because even if you just look at this calendar here that you've got in front of you, you have Huckabee winning Iowa. He thinks that McCain will win New Hampshire.

KING: Right.

ROBERTS: And you've got Michigan, South Carolina, which Huckabee can win again. He's polling very well there. Florida, you were mentioning a couple of states, the polls show Giuliani and Huckabee kind of neck in neck.

KING: The next couple are tricky. New Hampshire, obviously, first primary, bigger than the caucus state. It's a different dynamic, so let's see if Barack Obama and let's see if Mike Huckabee can win. Very tough state for Mike Huckabee in New Hampshire as you mentioned.

This state, Michigan, could have added importance. Before, it was sort of a little bit of a detour, if you will.

ROBERTS: Yes.

KING: Mitt Romney was born there. His dad was the governor there. John McCain won the state in 2000. Rudy Giuliani has dabbled a little bit in Michigan, so that could become important for a guy. If Romney doesn't win New Hampshire, he has to win here, or else you're 0 for three going into places that are less hospitable to you and the other guys start winning.

So the Republican race is wide open. It could be protracted. Giuliani still has to win somewhere, John. If he has to wait until Florida a lot of people think that's too long to wait.

ROBERTS: Yes.

You know that this race is so exciting. You and your calendar there could become as famous as Tim Russert and his little white board.

KING: This is a -- we call this low-tech, but it's easy. For a guy like me, this is perfect.

ROBERTS: John, thanks very much. Now let's go over to Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Well, why did voters back Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee? Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider has a breakdown of the issues that drove this race and how they may differentiate as we head into New Hampshire. Good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CHETRY: Nice to see you. So some of the things that brought the Iowa voters out and made the Iowa voters choose who they chose are not going to be the same that carry over into New Hampshire.

SCHNEIDER: No, they're not. The top issues in Iowa were in the case of the Democrats, the war in Iraq and economy were tied. A few months ago everyone said this is all going to be about Iraq. It's the driving issue for Democrats. But what we see here is the economy was a tie with Iraq as the issue that was on their minds, and Barack Obama beat cannot Clinton on all three issues including health care, which is supposed to be Hillary Clinton's signature issue.

CHETRY: Right. And then the other interesting thing is that as you look at the Republicans and why Huckabee came out on top, illegal immigration the top issue, but it seemed as though that was not a huge issue that Huckabee spoke about.

SCHNEIDER: He didn't and he had to defend his record on it. There was the issue on the minds of Iowa voters and the fact is, he won the voters who said they were concerned about illegal immigration and about the economy, which was Romney's signature issue. What's interesting about Republicans is terrorism, the war in Iraq, those two big foreign policy issues, lower in the concerns of Iowa Republicans. Those are the issues John McCain is running on in New Hampshire, and we'll see how he does.

CHETRY: So those might have been the top issues, but when you look at who came out to vote, you saw a big jump in evangelical voters. Typically, you see about 40 percent for the turnout in Iowa among GOP, and it was up to 60 percent.

SCHNEIDER: It was a very heavily evangelical vote. They drove the Huckabee vote. Take a look at how they voted actually. Huckabee, 46 percent, Thompson just 11. He beat Romney, you see it at the bottom there, 19 percent. He beat Mitt Romney better than 2:1 among those evangelical voters.

Now, the nonevangelical voters were a minority but they're going to be more and more important, particularly in New Hampshire where there aren't many evangelical voters. You know how Mike Huckabee did among nonevangelical voters? Fourteen percent. He's going to have to broaden his base beyond the evangelicals if he's going to win New Hampshire and other states.

CHETRY: You mentioned a couple of interesting things about New Hampshire. Like Iowa, it's also the majority white, 96 percent, I believe, in New Hampshire.

SCHNEIDER: Right.

CHETRY: And Barack Obama winning Iowa, what type of message does that send to others like African-American voters in South Carolina?

SCHNEIDER: African-American voters in South Carolina have been inclined to vote for Hillary Clinton. Clinton is a magic name with black voters, but here is Barack Obama. He won Iowa. Ninety-three percent white. He could win New Hampshire, which is 96 percent white. Then he comes to South Carolina.

Are African-American voters going to block him, the man who could become the first black president of the United States? I don't think so. So he could be in position now to win three important states in a row.

CHETRY: Boy, the momentum from that would be priceless.

SCHNEIDER: It would be very dramatic.

CHETRY: Thanks a lot. Bill Schneider, always great to see you.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

CHETRY: And we're going to be talking this morning with Republican candidates who finished first and second in Iowa. Mike Huckabee joins us as well as Mitt Romney live in the 7:00 hour right here on AMERICAN MORNING -- John.

ROBERTS: Let's keep in mind, too, though, that this is one state. There's plenty of other contests still ahead.

Eleven minutes after the hour. Other headlines new this morning. Breaking news overnight in Los Angeles.

Singer Britney Spears was carried out of her home there on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Police had been called to her home after she reportedly refused to turn over her young sons to her ex-husband. TMZ.com reports that the LAPD found Spears to be "under the influence of an unknown substance." Her sons are with their father, Kevin Federline, who has primary custody of them.

A new revelation in the CIA tapes investigation. A top lawmaker warned against destroying the interrogation tapes back in 2003, saying it would "reflect badly on the agency." California Congresswoman Jane Harmon's office publicly released the letter. This is the letter she told us about here when she visited us on AMERICAN MORNING a few weeks back.

At that time, she was asking for it to be declassified. It refers to a classified briefing in which then CIA General Counsel Scott Mueller told a House intelligence committee that Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was being interrogated using waterboarding. That's a process where a detainee is made to feel like they are drowning. The CIA destroyed those tapes in 2005, saying it was done out of fear that they could be used to identify the interrogators and possibly threaten national security.

Investigators from Britain Scotland Yard are in Pakistan right now looking into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. President Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged reports that evidence was destroyed because the crime scene had been quickly hosed down after the attack. A lot of bystanders thought that was awfully suspicious. Musharraf says a Taliban commander is responsible for the assassination -- Kiran.

CHETRY: We're also following the search for a missing hiker this morning in Georgia. She's 24-year-old Meredith Emerson, pictured there, last seen New Year's Day when she went hiking with her dog in the mountains. Now, police are also looking for a man in his 60s, they're describing as a person of interest, who was seen talking to her on one of the trails.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is live in Union County, Georgia, this morning. What are the details what police know about this man at this point, Rusty?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, they don't know a lot but they are looking to question 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton. Police believe he was the last person to talk to Meredith Emerson on the trail. Now, they're not saying they suspect foul play at this point, but her friends and family say this is not a woman who got lost in the woods. She knows her way around these trails.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): What happened to 24-year-old Meredith Emerson and her black lab, Ella, as they hiked familiar trails in the mountains of north Georgia New Year's Day? Friends found her snow- covered car, a water bottle and the dog's leash. Now, police say they are looking for a person of interest. Gary Michael Hilton, 61 years old, who may have been one of the last people to have seen or spoken with Emerson.

Witnesses say he was weather-beaten, carrying an old pack and had few or no teeth. According to police, witnesses say Hilton was seen talking to Emerson on the trail, while their dogs played. Now police want to talk to him.

KIMBERLY VERDONE, UNION COUNTY SHERIFF SPOKESWOMAN: We want to find out who he was and kind of talk to him and see what happened and what their conversation was throughout the day.

DORNIN: A witness told police that a white mini van belonging to Hilton was seen in the parking lot of the trail head where she disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meredith! Meredith!

DORNIN: Friends, family and co-workers joined search and rescue teams hitting the trails where she was last seen. Frigid temperatures meant the search had to be called off at sunset. Friends say Emerson is very athletic and knew the trails here. Her former martial arts instructor described her as strong, 120 pounds of pure tough, he said.

PEGGY BAILEY, FMR. MARTIAL ARTS INSTRUCTOR: She's got a good chance because of who she is and what kind of physical shape she was in, and her knowledge of the trails and her level-headedness and ability to follow, to not do anything risky.

DORNIN: Her friends set up a Web site, helpfindmeridith.com, asking anyone with information to contact police.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: Police say they want to talk to all five or six witnesses who contacted them. The problem is, some of those people were anonymous. They are not telling police who they are, but they just are sort of giving the information that they saw her talking to this man on the trail. Meantime, the search will continue today. They're expected to bring back the dogs, as well as the helicopter that's equipped with infrared -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Rusty Dornin for us in Union County, Georgia, this morning, thank you.

ROBERTS: Now coming up at 16 minutes after the hour. We're going to go behind the numbers to see what propelled Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee to victory in the Iowa caucuses. Keep it right here on CNN for all your political analysis, all morning long ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Eighteen minutes after the hour now. It is on to New Hampshire for Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee, after their impressive wins in last night's Iowa caucuses. How did they pull it off?

Jim Vandehei, the executive editor of "The Politico" joins us again from Washington with his analysis. So what do you make of what happened last night, Jim?

JIM VANDEHEI, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE POLITICO: Obviously, it's a very, very big win for Barack Obama, and I think it's very bad news for Hillary Clinton and here's why. You know, Barack Obama said, listen, I can win. He did that. He said I can bring in independents. He did, and he won independent votes, and he said I can bring in new voters, brought in a ton of them and they all voted for him.

This is clearly somebody who's proven now that he can put together an organization which he did in Iowa and won and that he can put together a message that really resonates with a broad swathe of voters, not just Democrats but also Independents and Republican.

ROBERTS: Yes.

VANDEHEI: He's now going to take that to other states, and Hillary Clinton has to come up with some magical formula to say, you know what? Wait, I'm better. And I think her one best chance is to focus on foreign policy and continue to say like I'm more prepared to lead this country in war time and in a time of terror.

ROBERTS: So Jim, is this an indication to the party that as they look past these preliminary contests to the general election, that Barack Obama could be the sort of candidate who could bridge that divide in America, pulling a lot of these Independents, maybe even peel off some Republicans and therefore, win the general election?

VANDEHEI: It's certainly possible. Go back and listen to his convention speech in 2004, and then listen to his speech last night. There is a remarkable consistency to this man's message and I think it's a message that resonates with a lot of folks, especially young voters who are sick and tired of Washington.

It's hard for us to appreciate when we're always in Washington. But when you get out of Washington, you see it in very stark terms like people hate Washington. They're sick of all the divisiveness. They're sick of the fighting, and they just want to figure out, is there a way to get people in Washington that can really shake things up and change?

If people really believe that, if they really believe that they can change things, I do think you can see higher turnout. And that's why you see this sort of electric attraction to Obama among young voters and when they see what happened in Iowa that people turned out and it made a difference, I do think that has a snowball effect. I think you see the same dynamic in other states. It doesn't mean that he's inevitable.

These things are always very unpredictable. This is one state and a long process, but this is a huge, huge victory and a huge, huge setback for the Clintons. They know it. They're going to try to regroup, and they're going to make a heck of a big stand in New Hampshire. If Hillary Clinton does not win New Hampshire, it's going to be very tough for her to recover.

ROBERTS: And Jim, what did Mike Huckabee's win last night tell us about what kind of president he would be?

VANDEHEI: You know, I think people tend to underestimate Huckabee. I don't think his appeal is simply that he's an evangelical Christian. That certainly gave him the victory in Iowa. He is a very -- he's a remarkable speaker. The guy, we saw it in debates. We've seen it in speeches that he's given. He's got an ability to really connect with people, and I think his message of economic populism, it resonates with people outside of the Beltway and outside of the coast because people are really uncertain right now about what's happening with the economy and the mortgage crisis, and they want to know there's a Republican out there that maybe understands what's going on and connects with them in sort of a same environment of change if we want something different.

So I do think he's a formidable force. I do think that the establishment Republicans are likely to rally around someone like John McCain...

ROBERTS: Yes.

VANDEHEI: ... because they're not comfortable with Huckabee because they don't see him as being strong on national security. They don't see him being strong on economic matters at least from a conservative perspective because he raised taxes in Arkansas.

ROBERTS: Yes. They might, in fact, do everything they can to stop him.

VANDEHEI: Absolutely.

ROBERTS: Jim Vandehei, from "Politico" this morning. Jim, thanks very much.

VANDEHEI: Take care. Have a good day.

ROBERTS: All right. You too -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Leave it to Britney Spears to steal the spotlight from the presidential candidates. Police called to her house last night. There is video of her being wheeled out on a stretcher from her home.

Lola Ogunnaike joins us now with the full story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 24 minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi here "Minding Your Business" this morning. It's interesting how economic issues did factor in...

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

CHETRY: ... to what a lot of these candidates were talking about, change, and we have new unemployment numbers coming up.

VELSHI: That's right. 8:30 a.m. Eastern, this morning, we've got the monthly employment numbers for December. Now, the economic issue remains the biggest issue for most voters in America and when we talk about recession and people are worried about it while we think about gas prices and oil prices and home prices, the number one concern, the number one economic concern for Americans has got to be jobs.

If you have a job, you can manage somehow to make your payments. If you don't have a job, the gas issue and the home price issue is almost secondary. Now, here's what we have in the country. We have a 4.7 percent unemployment rate. It is expected to go up a little bit.

Here's how the country breaks down. Those areas in green have an unemployment rate which is lower than 4.7 percent by about 0.5 percent. Those areas in the reddish ruddy brown color have unemployment rates that are higher than the national average, and those in yellow are around the national average. So you can see there's a whole swathe of states there in green which are showing better than average growth in jobs.

We are expecting today to hear that in December we created about 70,000 jobs. Now if that's true, that's about half as many jobs as one needs to create in order to keep this economy going. So the presidential candidates today as they start into the next session, the primary session, they might have to deal with the idea that we've got $100 a barrel oil, we've got possible unemployment issues and still have a housing crisis. It's not a great way to start the year.

CHETRY: That's right. And welcome, you're president.

VELSHI: That's right. Solve the problems.

CHETRY: Now solve all of these problems.

VELSHI: That's right.

CHETRY: That's what people want to hear for sure. Thanks, Ali, good to see you.

VELSHI: OK.

ROBERTS: See you soon.

History in Iowa. Barack Obama became the first African-American to win the caucuses in either party. It is a state that is 95 percent white, and there could be many more firsts for the candidate from now until November.

And that brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. Will America elect a black president? Cast your vote at CNN.com/Am. We will have the first tally of votes coming up later on this hour.

CHETRY: And also the best political coverage anywhere continues here on AMERICAN MORNING. We're analyzing the results of Iowa, also looking ahead to New Hampshire. What it means for you, and what issues will shape the race for our next president. Keep it here this morning. We've got a lot of good stuff coming up.

Also, if you're lost and can't get home, but in one piece. How about it?

A driver nearly hit by a train, thanks to a GPS unit? Well, that story in today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: And welcome back this morning. It is Friday, January 4th. I'm Kiran Chetry. A busy and long night last night, very exciting.

ROBERTS: And what a tremendous story. And if you're looking for a political story, you got one. I'm John Roberts, good morning to you.

Months, and in some cases years of planning all for one night. And now just hours after the dust settles, the best political team on television is figuring out what it all means for the nomination race going forward.

We're talking with Joe Johns live in Des Moines, Iowa. AMERICAN MORNING's Veronica De La Cruz and chief national correspondent John King.

John, let's start with you. Let's listen a little bit of what Mike Huckabee said last night after he won the Iowa caucuses, about this idea of economic populism and his message for the masses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're finding out how to talk to the middle class, finding out how to talk to people in small business that makes up 80 percent of the jobs in this country. To speak up for the folks that maybe felt like nobody was talking for them and to them in the Republican Party. This was not just an Iowa deal. I think it was an American deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Certainly played well in Iowa, this whole idea of connecting with the middle class.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It did and the question is can he carry it on to the next big contest? And the defining test is five days now in New Hampshire where he can't count on the support of evangelicals. They really don't exist in the state of New Hampshire. His proposal to abolish the IRS and have a national sales tax is not popular in the state of New Hampshire. But this populism, especially in rural areas is catching on. Go to Mike Huckabee events in Iowa. You will find John Edwards supporters there. Try to see who is the best populist if you will.

The economy is rising as an issue among Republicans. The question over the next couple of days in New Hampshire is can he build his support. He doesn't expect to win New Hampshire, but can he building support by picking up people who want to hear someone talking about the economy.

ROBERTS: He has put himself forward as an agent of change within the Republican Party. And he's getting some real pushback. You know, he won over, as you said evangelicals last night in Iowa but he's getting some real pushback from conservatives, non-evangelicals.

KING: Non-evangelicals. The Republican establishment in Washington does not like him. The other candidates are now trying to react to him. One of the interesting lessons we are learning on this early morning, after the long night last night is that what voters want has change over the course of the election. We started with the anger over Iraq and we watched the Republicans go through the anger over illegal immigration.

What is happening now, it appears to be, that because of the long campaign probably, voters are looking for people who have talked about getting things done. They're looking for nontraditional politicians. So, Obama wins, Huckabee wins. You have Mitt Romney. You remember Mitt Romney, at the beginning of the campaign, he was trying to prove himself to conservatives, to the evangelicals saying, I'm a Reagan Republican. Well, on the flight last night, he was saying I'm the governor of the Blue State, Democratic Massachusetts. I got things done on education, on healthcare. I worked with Democrats. That is what Huckabee has been saying. That is what McCain has been saying. That is what Obama is saying. Suddenly, getting things done is becoming more important than ideology.

ROBERTS: Slight change of the message. We'll see if he can sell it in the next three days. John King, thanks.

Kiran?

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: No rest for the weary. Many of the Democratic candidates have flown and now arrived in the next battleground of New Hampshire and they only have four days to sway the undecided. Our live coverage continues now Joe Johns in Des Moines. So what is next, Joe, looking ahead for the candidates? We talked about Hillary Clinton's plane just landing there in Manchester, a few moments ago.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, it's really a sprint now to the finish there in New Hampshire. Everybody has a little different objective, if you will, among the top three Democrats. For Barack Obama, perhaps, the biggest objective is to take the bump you typically get out of Iowa and do something with it. There are a lot of independent voters there in New Hampshire. You really have to sort of prove yourself to them, and sometimes it's not that easy a sell, even if you did very well in Iowa.

For Hillary Clinton, of course, it's a little different. She needs a comeback moment. This was a disappointing finish for her, certainly in the state of Iowa. This time, she has to prove she's still viable. Although, you have to say that Hillary Clinton has enough money and enough organization, quite frankly, to take this thing for the long haul, as she's saying.

For John Edwards of course, on the ground right now in New Hampshire, headed to a rally shortly, if not there already. His challenge of course is sort of to hang on, because his whole paradigm, the whole thing he was about just didn't work out very well. John Edwards had originally planned to sort of win big here in Iowa, and use that as sort of a wave to move him into New Hampshire and the rest of the state. Well, he didn't win big here. He came in second, and almost third, if Hillary Clinton had scored just a little bit more. So, Edwards has a very uphill climb at this point.

His strategy, I'm told, talking to his handlers is to try to at least make a strong showing if he can in New Hampshire with an eye toward really breaking out in perhaps Nevada or South Carolina, which is a state he was born in, Kiran.

CHETRY: The other interesting thing is that of course the fields has winnowed somewhat. We had Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Joe Biden of Delaware, both dropping out after the Iowa caucuses. Who does that benefit out of the three front-runners?

JOHNS: Well, the interesting thing about all of those other also rans is that they never caught on simply because of the star power that celebrity, if you will, of the top three candidates on the Democratic side. Those three candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, just sucked up all the air here in Iowa, and made it very hard for some pretty good other, you know, rather typical candidates in another year to do well.

It just made it very hard for them, so you know, one or the other can throw his support behind one of these top candidates, but the fact of the matter is, you just had too much star power at the top for some of the other guys to make much of a showing.

CHETRY: Joe Johns for us in Des Moines, thank you.

ROBERTS: We're going to be talking this morning with the Republican candidates who finished first and second in Iowa. Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are going to be joining us live in our 7:00 hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Lots of other news to tell you about as well. We are tracking extreme weather in California and we mean extreme. The potential for historic snowfall in the Sierra. Blizzard warnings have been posted in the bay area, bracing for floods, mudslide and hurricane-force winds. Rob Marciano is off today. Our Jacqui Jeras is tracking the extreme weather from our weather update desk in Atlanta. Typically, Jacqui, we use the calculation of 10 inches of snow for every inch of rain. So, how much snow could fall in the Sierra?

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Well, the custody battle between Britney Spears and Kevin Federline taking another strange turn last night. Video now, to show you of Spears arriving at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She is being wheeled on a wheelchair, but you see her sitting up there. Apparently, she's having a psychological examination, possibly also being tested for drugs and alcohol, after she was taken from her house in a stretcher late last night. Police came to her house when she reportedly refused to give up her two sons back to her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, who has full time temporary custody of them because of other problems with Spears in the past. She has visitation, very limited, and under court order, somebody has to be there to monitor that visitation.

AMERICAN MORNING's Lola Ogunnaike and legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins us now. You know, it's tragic but at the same time you have to laugh at the timing. The day after the, you know, the country is focused on something completely else, and Britney Spears yet again in the news. What happened, Lola?

LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 2007 was a train wreck of the year for her and it appears that 2008 is not off to a good start either. She was supposed to turn over custody of her sons to Kevin Federline's bodyguards yesterday. They have the shared custody of sorts, but she refused to do so. Police were called to the scene to mediate the dispute. A few hours later, the ambulances arrived and carried her out on a gurney. According to our reports, her sons were at the scene also. One of her sons was also carried out in an ambulance, according to TMZ.

We're reporting that the two sons are with Kevin Federline, but according to TMZ, one of the sons, Jaden, the youngest son, was also carried out in the ambulance. So, there are still rumors out there swirling about the health of the son. But what we do know right now is that Britney is currently in the hospital, like you said, and she is undergoing psychological exams as well as drug tests.

CHETRY: And in fact, in the other picture we just put up, you only see her older son, Shawn, in the back of the SUV being driven by the bodyguards back to Kevin Federline's home. It raises a lot of question, Sunny, about the situation when it comes to custody. She is already on a very, very tight leash, legally speaking, when it comes to what she can and can't do because of past trouble. So, how does this factor in?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. She's been in a lot of trouble with this judge. Judges want people to follow their court orders. Now we know that the judge ordered her to submit to random drug testing twice a week. What happen is that she failed to take some of those tests. Failure to take a drug test, a court- ordered drug test, is the same as failing that test. So, that's one thing.

The other thing is she was supposed to go to parenting coaching. Apparently, she did some of that, she didn't do some of that. The very important thing is that she was supposed to go to a deposition. She called in sick to a deposition, and was photographed partying with a friend and driving with a friend, and so she's had all these issues over and over and over again, failing to follow court orders. And now end up with that.

CHETRY: How long before they say you can't see your kids?

HOSTIN: You know, the legal standard is what is in the best interests of the children. Lola and I have been speak about this, and Kiran, we've been speaking about this as well. What is in the best interests of the children? It's very unusual for a mother to lose custody of their children, and the bottom line is, the courts are loath to do that.

Judges don't want to do that. But one way that you can lose your children is by being abusive to them, verbally, physically and abusing drugs or alcohol and she is doing that apparently. And so, the judge now has ordered it must be that she has to submit to a test, because we now know that she was probably under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And now, a psych evaluation may also be ordered. That would probably be the best thing for her, in my view, because if she's having psychological problems, then that may, may help her.

CHETRY: And Lola, a judge clearly can't order her to get out of town. Get the heck away from the paparazzi and just get herself under control. But this situation, as you said, is just the latest chapter in what seems to be a very public unraveling by this one's huge superstar.

OGUNNAIKE: And what's so tragic is that she actually just released a really good album. It was well-received. It debuted at number two on the billboard charts. The first single "Gimme More" is still really hot at the clubs and really hot on radio. So had she been able to clean up her act, had she been able to get herself together, she could have staged a comeback. But instead, she continued to spiral and spiral and spiral out of control. The lists of what happened to her last year are just too endless to go into right now.

HOSTIN: And the other thing that I want to say very quickly is that her lawyers now have moved to withdraw from her side and so she is really waiting through these legal battles, probably, without good legal counsel. Worst thing that could happen to her.

CHETRY: All right, we'll find out more. We'll keep everyone posted on it. Thanks to both of you.

John?

ROBERTS: Its 42 minutes after the hour now. We take you up live to Manchester, New Hampshire. Got some pictures here. This is a John Edwards rally that has just getting under way. It looks like they are conducting, what are they doing, conducting some music or is he doing some sort of performance here? It's difficult to tell at this point. The strings of U2 "Where The Streets Have No Name" I believe, that is playing the background, and a lot of clapping going on.

John Edwards may be about to take the stage here. He finished second last night, showing that he was very happy with, talked to some members of his campaign. They're pretty happy with the way they finished up. How is he going to do in New Hampshire? We'll find out. Best political coverage on TV continues with "The Best Political Team on Television." Why did caucusgoers stand up in record numbers for Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee? CNN contributor's Roland Martin and Jim Geraghty joined us live with the answers, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, stunning and historic victories for both Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in the state of Iowa. Will it be enough momentum to help them next Tuesday? Joining me now to look at it all and tell us what it means going forward and what it means for politics in 2008 here in this country, potentially the history of this nation and the future of this country, CNN contributor Roland Martin. He is the host of the Roland Martin Show. He is in New York with me here and Washington national review contributor, Jim Geraghty.

So Roland, let's start with you. This incredible victory by Barack Obama last night, the Democrats are so close on the issues. It's very difficult to tell the difference between the two. Why did Iowans pick him and not Hillary Clinton or John Edwards?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's a matter of passion. What he presented. I mean, the level of energy that he brought to it. But also a change was critical. You look at the various studies. It was very clear they said that change is extremely important. Experience matters, but they say that suppose jumps out, we want to see a change in Washington D.C.

And every time Clinton talks about when she was in the White House, we start thinking about special prosecutors, Whitewater, all the fight. And people say, you know what, we're tired of that. And the younger generation, they don't have any recollection of Bill Clinton. This is 2008. He lives in '92. That's a long time ago. If you're 25 years old today, you don't know who Bill Clinton was.

ROBERTS: Change was certainly the platform upon which Barack Obama was pinning his candidacy last night. Let's take a listen to what he said after learning that he had won in the state of Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Jim Geraghty, what do you think? I mean, Obama comes out of Iowa with a huge head of steam. Does Hillary Clinton have some real trouble trying to get her message across and catch up with them, or if we look back in 1992, and we saw that her husband finished in Iowa with only 2.8 percent of the vote, she's probably got a pretty good chance somewhere along the line to make her mark.

JIM GERAGHTY, CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL REVIEW: Yes. Well, keep in mind that was Tom Harkin, who was the senator from Iowa that was running that year. So really nobody was competing that year. I'm not going to say she had a bad night. I'm just going to say, I think Britney Spears might have had a better one. It's just one of those things where she was running on inevitability, at a certain coronation sense. And you know, without that, once you've demonstrated, you've been beaten, she is going to have to win on her sparkling personality.

MARTIN: John, I got to disagree with that. When you lose by nine points to Obama, you had a bad night. The guy sitting next to you is a former president of the United States, your husband, who is a standard bearer of the Democratic Party. You couldn't win with him at your side? No, she had a bad night. Now, part of her problem is, you don't know what she's going to talk about.

ROBERTS: I think Jim was suggesting she had a bad night.

MARTIN: I'll say a blowout night.

ROBERTS: But she, unlike Britney Spears, she at least, did not end up in the hospital.

MARTIN: Well, this is very true. ROBERTS: Jim, Mike Huckabee. Does this set up a battle between Christian conservatives and non-evangelical conservatives, and is the Republican Party establishment now going to take even greater aim at Huckabee trying to stop him?

GERAGHTY: Possibly, but I don't think quite yet. We're moving on to, you know, Wyoming is going on Saturday but nobody's really paying much attention to that. You've got New Hampshire, which really the fight is between Mitt Romney and John McCain. In the last couple of polls, have McCain up pretty significantly. For now at least, it looks like to be at least a three-way fight. Rudy Giuliani has the strategy where he's going to skip all of the stuff or not really put too much effort into it, and you know, jump in around Florida or so. I think the Thompson campaign thinks that they did OK last night, and that they still have a shot, in say South Carolina.

So at some point, it may come down to two of these guys. And it might be the Huckabee and the not Huckabee. But at that point, if Mike Huckabee thinks he had hostile press in Iowa, well you know, he was just handed a gold medal with a bulls eye on it.

MARTIN: I think we're making a bad mistake when we keep talking about Huckabee, the only (INAUDIBLE) evangelicals. He's going to take a pay from George W. Bush in 2000. Present himself as a compassionate conservative, expand his message.

ROBERTS: The economic populism

MARTIN: That's exactly what's going to happen. So, what you saw in 2000 with Bush, watch Huckabee play it. He probably won't use the phrases, but that was very appealing to suburban female voters on the GOP side for Bush, Huckabee is going to go after them on Republican side.

ROBERTS: Oh well, we got three days to watch this race very intensely and look at the issues and see how they're play there in New Hampshire. Roland Martin and Jim Geraghty, thanks very much for being with us.

MARTIN: Appreciate it.

ROBERTS: Now, let's go back to Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. We're headed to the next big battleground state in New Hampshire. AMERICAN MORNING will be live from New Hampshire, Monday and Tuesday. It all gets under way at 6:00 eastern, so you got to join us there as well. And also, we've heard from the pundits and of course from the politicians. Now for the people, what the blogs are saying about the first key race for president and where it goes from here. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN at 53 minutes after the hour. Seven minutes to the top of the hour. We rely on them every day to get us where we need to go. But a GPS almost led a driver to his death. He followed the directions right onto the train tracks. It happened north of New York City. The man claims his navigation system told him to make a right turn at the crossing. He jumped out and tried to flag down the conductor after he found himself on the tracks, but the train slammed his rental car at 60 miles an hour, dragged the fiery wreck 100 feet.

Metro-North railroad says 500 riders were stranded for two hours during the nighttime rush, but no one was hurt. Can you imagine, GPS tells you, turn right here on the railroad tracks?

CHETRY: No, I can't imagine that and oftentimes you have to double check when you get those online directions as well, because they don't necessarily account for...

ROBERTS: You're still getting the online directions.

CHETRY: Why? You have a GPS?

ROBERTS: You are so old school.

CHETRY: No, I'm even more old school than that. I stop at the gas station and say "Excuse me, where is Kennedy Boulevard?" Anyway, as the night wore on last night, the blogs certainly lit up with people discussing the results of the Iowa caucuses. Our Veronica De La Cruz has some reaction from the web this morning. It's funny, Veronica.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're so tech savvy. You know, I have sit her down with her iPod, teach her how to use it.

CHETRY: You did that yesterday.

DE LA CRUZ: You have to get the directions on your Blackberry.

ROBERTS: How old are you?

CHETRY: 29, forever. I was laughing because I thought about you yesterday. I was watching the returns, watching television but I also had my computer, right on my lap, checking the blogs.

DE LA CRUZ: And that's how you do it. That's how you watch TV these days. You got to put that laptop up, right there on your lap, watch television at the same time. You know, we spend a lot of time checking out those blogs. Some are talking about the Hillary loss, others talking about the Huckabee win, but most of them, talking about the Obama victory. Saying how he was really able to unite voters of all ages and races to really come out and caucus for him. Take a look at this.

This is the front page of the huffingtonpost.com this morning, taking a quote, directly from Obama himself saying, "They never said this day would come." Arianna Huffington posts this. Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa -- down home, folksy, 92 percent white Iowa, says a lot about America. And then she goes on to say that Obama's win might not have legs, but for one night at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America and we can look at ourselves with pride. And the other win talked about a lot, the Mike Huckabee win. A blogger from redstate.com had this to say about Huckabee. He says, "I think that he is the worst major candidate to throw into the general election, but give the man his due with very little money and very little organization, he won in a state where money and organization matter a great deal." And this from Patrick Ruffini at TechPresident.com who called on all those tech savvy to microblog the caucuses.

Take a look at this. Tons of people logging on to twitter.com. This is the page there. At least, 70 different tweets coming in. They are all trying to figure out who won the race. And Ruffini writes this, very shortly after 7:00 p.m. central time, all of the reports were pointing in a single direction, a big night for Barack Obama. He actually goes on to say that he thinks that all those who were microblogging last night beat the media. So, you know, lots of people out there, you know, all on their computers, watching on television, and on their laptops at the same time.

ROBERTS: The world is changing for some of us.

DE LA CRUZ: We got to teach Kiran, get her up to speed.

CHETRY: And for others that stays the same. Veronica, thanks.

ROBERTS: Well, it is being called a medical miracle. A window washer plunges 500 feet. His colleague was killed. How he rode the platform to the ground and survived. The amazing story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUCKABEE: Thank you and God bless you, every one of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Record turnout and a message of change. Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama take Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We are one nation. We are one people, and our time for change has come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: This morning, the speech everyone will be talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We are ready to believe again. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Plus we're live with Governor Huckabee and the runner- up, Mitt Romney, on the Republican side.

Extreme weather, blizzards and pounding rain on the move in California. A live report from the storm front.

And carried away. Britney spears rushed by ambulance at a late night fight over her children, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com