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New Hampshire Prepares to Vote; Iran Confronts U.S. Navy Ships
Aired January 07, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The nation's first presidential primary is closer than you think. Folks in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, vote at midnight, nine hours from now. You are going to hear what makes this place so special.
And this man was a person of interest, then a suspect, now a defendant. But the young Georgia hiker he is accused of kidnapping still has not been found. Our Rusty Dornin is on the case.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN Center in Atlanta. And you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Maintaining momentum, coming from behind or reviving their campaigns, whatever the presidential candidates are trying to do, they are counting on New Hampshire and its mostly independent voters to do it. We're counting down to the Granite's State first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Mary Snow are there, along with the rest of the best political team in television.
John McCain says that Mac is back, but Mitt Romney is hoping to send Mac packing. It's a fight to the finish for the GOP in New Hampshire.
Let's go to Mary Snow in New Hampshire -- Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it really is so heated, and the candidates wasting no time hitting the campaign trail early today, hoping to sway the undecideds.
Mitt Romney had a setback in Iowa. He is trying to make a comeback here in New Hampshire. His theme has been that he wants -- he's portraying himself as the Washington outsider. And he's been taking aim at Senator John McCain, his main rival here, for spending decades in Washington.
Earlier today on the campaign trail, here's a little of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I frankly don't think that Senator McCain, despite his service and his length of experience, that that's going to be able to stand up to the message that Barack Obama has brought forward. I think -- I think Barack Obama would be able to do John McCain exactly what he was able to do to the other senators who are running on the Democratic side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Mitt Romney has been taking an aggressive strategy after John McCain, who has been surging here in New Hampshire, Senator McCain out on the campaign trail today also responding to some of Mitt Romney's criticisms, particularly the fact that Mitt Romney said you really don't need to have -- to be a foreign-policy expert or have a great deal of experience in order to be commander in chief.
Today, John McCain has been really stressing the fact that he has leadership skills and the experience.
Here's what he had to say earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know that the young people I see in front of me represent America's greatness. I am optimistic about the future of this country. I believe I can lead it. I think it's still a shining city on a hill.
And, my dear friends, tomorrow is the day when we will tell the world that the state of New Hampshire has again chosen the next president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: These two candidates considered the front-runners here in New Hampshire, but Mike Huckabee is also out campaigning. He had his upset victory in Iowa. He was never really a strong first-place contender here, but he's hoping to place in his words third or fourth, also a little bit of an unconventional approach, his campaigning here in New Hampshire. But he left a little while ago to head to New York. He's going to be doing "The David Letterman Show," a taping there, and then head back here to New Hampshire.
He's really vying for that third-place spot with Rudy Giuliani, who has also been taking an unconventional approach. He, too, is campaigning out in the state. He's really banking his strategy on winning Florida January 29th and then on to larger states. Giuliani's message lately has also centered around this whole theme of change, but his message has been there's good change and bad change. He believes that he and other Republicans will bring about the change that is needed, but certainly a very heated race right down to the wire -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: No doubt. Mary Snow, thank you very much.
Now let's take it over and talk about the Dems.
Suzanne Malveaux -- a very emotional Hillary Clinton, Suzanne. It looks like politics are just getting a little more personal.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it's interesting, because all the candidates describing this as not just a heated political race but also something that is very personally important to each one of them.
I'm actually at a house party with John Edwards. He says don't count him out in this race, that he is very much in it, and that he will go all the way to the end no matter what his placing is here. He's identifying differences in health care, nuclear energy, differences between him and the other candidates, saying this is very personal for him and his family watching them grow up and struggle with his parents.
We also heard from Senator Hillary Clinton earlier today, when she was asked a question at a rally, how does this affect her? How does she actually get through this? And here's how she responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see us fall backwards.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. I see what's happening. We have to reverse it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Kyra, a rare moment where we see Senator Hillary Clinton quite emotional when she was addressing that woman's question. Obviously, all the candidates trying to project as much as they can why this is important to them on a personal level, but also all of them very much in the fight, in the battle here.
I got a chance to talk to Hillary Clinton one-on-one yesterday about her strategy and also the issues, why she thinks that she needs to leap ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: (AUDIO GAP) scream, but it was a moment.
CLINTON: I want to make change, but I have already made change.
MALVEAUX: The Democrats' weekend debate was a turning point for the race's top three, John Edwards joining Barack Obama in painting Hillary Clinton as the status quo.
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Any time you speak out powerfully for change, the forces of status quo attack.
MALVEAUX: While some politicos saw her flash of rage as a sign she was losing it, Clinton used the moment to get back her mojo.
CLINTON: I did respond very passionately, because I have been a change agent. And, you know, I want people to know that I'm a fighter. MALVEAUX: Game on. Obama is fighting back.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And what the people of Iowa understood was the real gamble is to have the same old folks doing the same old things over and over and over again and somehow expecting a different result. That's a risk we can't take. That's a gamble we cannot afford.
MALVEAUX: John Edwards continues to cast himself as the candidate more like Obama, just a bit tougher.
EDWARDS: That choice, that decision between two change candidates is something we need to be able to have, a debate between those two candidates in an unfiltered way.
MALVEAUX: With polls showing Obama's lead widening, Clinton is now dismissing her opponent as all talk, no action.
CLINTON: Bring about change by making sure we nominate and elect a doer, not a talker.
MALVEAUX: Clinton is also trying to paint Obama as inconsistent on the issues.
CLINTON: It is significant that if someone is going to rail about lobbyists and claim that, you know, they are above all of this kind of special-interest influence, that the fact that Senator Obama's chairman here in New Hampshire is a lobbyist is a relevant piece of information.
MALVEAUX (on camera): Why do you think that it's relevant that he's a lobbyist? Because his own campaign says they think that that's an act of desperation our part on your campaign because it had never come up before?
CLINTON: Well, there's a time for things to come up, when people know about them and when the contrasts are being drawn, when voters are paying attention.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: So, they're definitely paying attention now, all eyes on New Hampshire. It was very interesting, the Obama camp responding to that saying that, well, he is not a lobbyist for the federal government or for Obama. Therefore, he's been fully vetted here.
I want to tell you about this house party we just went to with John Edwards. It was his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, who brought up the same point about the roll of lobbyists in the campaign. Clearly, everybody is trying to not only get attention. They're trying to make these very interesting distinctions, some of them, they believe, that shows inconsistencies in positions.
Should also let you know, another way they get attention here, they bring the celebrities. We saw Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins who were just here with John Edwards, again, to try to get out the message and get out as many of those independent voters as possible -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, from Bedford, New Hampshire, Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne, thanks.
And tomorrow we are going to talk with New Hampshire's Democratic Governor John Lynch. We are going to ask him about the primary and why his state should come first in the process of choosing presidents. Governor John Lynch tomorrow -- 1:00 Eastern -- right here on CNN.
And for more on the New Hampshire primary, just go to cnnpolitics.com. It's your one-stop shop for all things political.
Now more on the USS Hopper and two Navy ships that were confronted by Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz. Jamie McIntyre, our chief Pentagon correspondent, has been working details on that.
It's interesting. U.S. military said this could have been one bad situation, Jamie, yet, the Iranians are saying, huh, no big deal.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right.
(LAUGHTER)
MCINTYRE: Well, of course, Iran is downplaying the situation. But the U.S. military says this was a very dangerous game that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was playing in the Strait of Hormuz when they approached the U.S. warships. In fact, they came very close, one of the ships came very close, one of the small boats came very close to being blasted out of the water by one of the warships that had already been cleared to fire if they continued their provocative actions.
What the U.S. military says is when this three-ship task force essentially was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz heading into the Persian Gulf Sunday morning, they were approached by these five Iranian patrol boats, fast boats, that swarmed the U.S. formation, even went through, between some of the ships, and took some very provocative actions, including dropping some what appeared to be some white boxes in the water in front one of the ships and sending a threatening radio transmission that said something loosely translated to: "I am coming your way. You will explode in a few minutes."
Now, the U.S. military is used to dealing with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Persian Gulf. A lot of times, there's taunting. There's hostile rhetoric that goes on. But the U.S. commander in charge of the 5th Fleet, Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, told reporters at the Pentagon a short time that this is the most serious incident he's seen in the time he's been there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICE ADMIRAL KEVIN COSGRIFF, 5TH FLEET COMMANDER, U.S. NAVY: This is more serious because of the aggregate of the actions, the coordinated movement of the ships, the boats, the aggressive maneuvering, the more or less simultaneous radio communication, the dropping of objects.
So, these are, in my mind, unnecessarily provocative in international waters incidental to a routine transit of an internationally recognized strait. So, yes, it's more serious than we have seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, Kyra, one thing that's not clear is how close the Iranian boats got to the U.S. warships. We're told between 500 and 200 yards; 200 yards is about the length of two football fields.
So, it wasn't close enough that the ships felt that they were in an imminent threat. But, if they did feel that way, they have absolute permission to defend themselves, and they could have blasted those boats out of the water.
As it was, they were threatening enough that one of the ships, the USS Hopper, had been cleared to fire. And it's not clear whether they gave a warning to the Iranian boats or whether they simply determined that they were about to fire when they turned tail and left.
So, again, very serious confrontation. What the U.S. military's not clear about is whether the Iranians were just testing to see what the U.S. response would be or whether they were actually trying to provoke a bigger international incident than what we have on our hands now.
PHILLIPS: And no doubt it's something we would definitely want to see.
Jamie McIntyre, appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: Well, the man accused of kidnapping a missing Georgia hiker went to court last hour. Investigators from two states are trying to find out whether 61-year-old Gary Hilton will be linked to other crimes as well. Rusty Dornin here with the latest.
And a lot of things happening, dad speaking out for the first time.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
PHILLIPS: You have got Gary Hilton in court. And we're finding out more about his past record, too.
(CROSSTALK)
DORNIN: That's right, and how they are trying to link him to crimes in other cases.
(CROSSTALK)
DORNIN: But let's start out with the court case here -- Gary Michael Hilton is appearing in court this afternoon. And also he did not enter any kind of a plea. You can see him dressed in his orange jumpsuit, completely shackled. He didn't really say anything, not entering a plea.
In fact, his public defender apparently did ask about a committal plea perhaps some time in the future. Hilton, 61 years old, was denied any kind of bail in this case. The charges right now are kidnapping with intent to commit bodily harm. Of course, this is in connection with the disappearance of Meredith Emerson, whose clothes were found in a dumpster, bloody clothes in a dumpster, along with her I.D.
She was seen by several witnesses apparently talking to Hilton on New Year's Day, the day that she did disappearance. It looks like they're refocusing the search efforts to strictly -- it was five counties, Georgia counties, before. Now it's just going to be five miles surrounding the area from which she disappeared.
And today her father, Dave Emerson, for the first time, spoke to reporters and gave his plea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE EMERSON, FATHER OF MEREDITH EMERSON: I would first like to thank all the people involved in this search for our daughter Meredith. The amount of effort from professionals and volunteers who donated their time and services has been overwhelming.
This is just a reflection of how much Meredith loves others and how much Meredith is loved.
We are thankful that Ella has been found. But Meredith is still out there. I appeal to everyone to search their hearts and memories for anything they can remember and do to help us find Meredith and return her home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: Meantime, state and federal investigators meeting this afternoon -- apparently, that meeting did break up already, and an FBI spokesman, the special agent in charge said he's not making any comment at this point and he's letting the Georgia Bureau of Investigation take the lead, despite the fact that her body -- her car was discovered on federal property, also this link to this other couple, this North Carolina couple, that perhaps...
PHILLIPS: You were the first to tell us about this last week.
DORNIN: Right, that perhaps was linked, that this -- What's her name? -- Irene and John Bryant, that were discovered -- she was discovered, her body, bludgeoned to death in October. They are just comparing notes on this case. They are not saying there's a link, but they want to compare notes on it.
PHILLIPS: A lot of similarities.
DORNIN: A lot of similarities, because of the fact... PHILLIPS: Yellow jacket.
DORNIN: ... they had disappeared hiking, and also this yellow jacket that Hilton was seen wearing while talking to Emerson. Apparently, he also appears in an ATM photo using the slain woman's bank card in front of the ATM machine.
PHILLIPS: All right, we will keep tracking it. Thanks, Rusty.
Well, after the Nevada levee break...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is not high is lost. So, it's pretty ugly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: ... homeowners return to a muddy mess -- the cleanup from the CNN NEWSROOM.
And the best news possible for the families of six missing snowmobilers in Colorado. CNN is the first network to talk to them as they came right out of the woods.
Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
PHILLIPS: Well, does this list sound familiar? Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT SCOTT, WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL PLAYER: I'm too tired. It makes me smell bad. I got a case of the Mondays. I got a case of the Tuesdays. I left my shoes in my locker. I have got homework.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So, how many excuses do you have for not getting into shape? This intense and inspiring man won't listen to any of them, but we will tell you why you need to listen to his story straight ahead.
He joins us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: So, what's your New Year's resolution? Or better yet, how many excuses have you come up with for not keeping it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT: I'm not good enough to make the team. It's raining. My coach hates me. I'm not strong enough. I'm having a bad day. It's cold outside. It's too hot. I have got a blister. I think I have pinkeye. And my feet hurt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Joining me now from Madison, Wisconsin, Matt Scott, a basketball player who will not listen to your excuses. He stars in that Nike commercial that you just saw.
Matt, so great to have you with us.
SCOTT: I'm so excited for being here. Thanks for having me.
PHILLIPS: Well, I'll tell you what. Sonya (ph), my producer, and I saw your ad, and we wanted to know your story immediately.
And let's get to that in a second.
SCOTT: OK.
PHILLIPS: But, first of all, how did you end up starring in this Nike ad?
SCOTT: Well, you know what? I'm part of the U.S. Paralympics organization. And they were contacted by Nike. And they selected a few, like a handful of athletes to tryout/audition for this part. And I was lucky enough to be selected.
PHILLIPS: And tell me what the Nike folks said to you. Why did they want to do an ad like this?
SCOTT: You know what. They -- the ad's point is basically to inspire the uninspired. And you know what? There's right now, like, with the childhood obesity epidemic going around and just the need for people to get out and be active, this is -- this is a great message just to send across the country.
PHILLIPS: OK. You have got spina bifida.
(CROSSTALK)
SCOTT: Yes, ma'am.
PHILLIPS: You have always been athletic, though, ever since you were a kid.
Tell me what inspired you to get into athletics and to be like this and not feel sorry for yourself and just kick back and think, I don't have to do anything; I have got an excuse.
SCOTT: Absolutely. Absolutely.
You know what? I love sports. I grew up watching guys like Michael Jordan and just great, great athletes and things like that. And I always wanted to be a great athlete, no matter my disability or not. I have always wanted to be a great athlete. And I'm not going to make any excuses. And if I was to make those excuses, I wouldn't be ahead of my game and I wouldn't be where I was today.
PHILLIPS: And, so, where did that come from? Was it mom? Was it dad? Was it a coach? Was it just this spirit that you were born with?
SCOTT: I think that may have to be it, just because I have always -- I have always, always wanted to be a great athlete, no matter what. I don't think there is one influence or two influences that made me want to do this. I have always wanted to do it. It's always been inside of me.
PHILLIPS: And you're a player for the wheelchair basketball team there at the University of Wisconsin...
SCOTT: That's right.
PHILLIPS: ... also a member of the U.S. Paralympic Team in 2004 in Athens, Greece. What was it like to participate in the Olympics?
SCOTT: That was an amazing experience, unlike any I have ever experienced before. Just everything from the opening ceremonies, just so many people cheering for us, to the Games, it's just so intense. And it was just a great experience overall.
PHILLIPS: How often do you work out?
SCOTT: You know what, I'm always in the gym. If I'm not, if I'm not watching my opponents on tape or things like that, I'm in my chair, you know, just doing different chair skills and things like that or lifting weights, you know, probably three or four times a week. I'm always in the gym. I'm a gym rat.
PHILLIPS: Are you always playing basketball with other players in the chair, or do you mix it up?
SCOTT: You know what? Some of my able-body friends challenge me a little bit. They're like, oh, you think you're pretty good? You got a Nike commercial? OK, let's go.
(LAUGHTER)
SCOTT: And I show them how it's done.
PHILLIPS: You totally out-swoop them, don't you?
(LAUGHTER)
SCOTT: Absolutely. Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: Finally, the message you want to send out, just about your life, spina bifida, this ad? What is your goal here? I just talk to you, and I'm inspired. And I can see what you're about. But I know you want this to go on a much larger scale.
SCOTT: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know what? I -- my message is clear. Just I -- you know what, I'm glad this is an inspiration -- inspiring TV ad, and I'm glad that people -- that it's had such a positive outlook for people. And people -- and I just don't want people to be inspired just because I'm in a wheelchair, just because I have a disability. I want people to be inspired because this is a great way to get people to be active and just go out and do it.
PHILLIPS: Yes, my guess -- or my guess is, no matter what you come across, you would always be this way, Matt.
SCOTT: Absolutely. Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: Matt Scott, University of Wisconsin, star of the Nike ad and star of the basketball team, we will be watching you.
SCOTT: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
PHILLIPS: All right, Matt.
Well, if you want to win New Hampshire, you got to go to Dixville Notch first. Where is Dixville Notch? We are going to take you to the tiny town with quite a big tradition.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BUSINESS REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Well, she's one of Barack Obama's biggest supporters, and even though she's thousands of miles away, she's close to his heart. We are going to take you on a long trip to meet the Obama family on the farm.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right, well, she's one of Barack Obama's biggest supporters. And even though she's thousands of miles away, she's close to his heart. We're going to take you on a long trip to meet the Obama family on the farm.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, just in, video of six snowmobilers safe after a three day ordeal. Searchers had been looking for the group since Friday, when they headed up the mountains along the New Mexico/Colorado border and were stranded by a blizzard. They managed to get a call out today from a snowbound train station.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA MARTIN, SNOWMOBILER: We just got lost. We were out snow...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Friday?
MARTIN: Friday, yes. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where were you able to survive?
MARTIN: We went up to the Osier cabin. And we broke in there and found some popcorn and some gravy mix. And that's what we've been living on for the last three, four days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you were actually at the train station.
MARTIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's where you found shelter.
MARTIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How were you able to get the call out?
MARTIN: Well, Jason went out this morning, went up on the hill and got the call out so...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So how are you feeling right now?
MARTIN: Yes, with the cell phone. I'm shaking. Ready for a shower and a toothbrush.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Martin says that she, her husband and teenage son, along with another couple and their teenage daughter, had planned to go snowmobiling for just a few hours.
Misery in Fernley -- at last count, almost 300 homes in that small Nevada community are a muddy mess after a levee break. The mayor tells us only one homeowner in the town of 12,000 has flood insurance.
CNN's Susan Roesgen looks at what one family is facing.
SUSAN ROESGEN, GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this is something that people here in Fernley, Nevada never expected to see -- an ice skating rink, basically, where their driveways used to be.
Let me tell you about the couple who lives here in this house. It's a retired couple, Nancy and Walt Maddox. They heard their dog frantically barking early Saturday morning. They stepped outside here to see what was going on. It was dark, it was cold, but they could see water already lapping under the front door.
This is the way they got out. They had to crawl through their front window into a boat. The rescuers were waiting for them already with a boat.
Let me show you what it looks like now inside the house. And it's pretty bad. You can see the water came in, bringing a lot of mud. Now this is where the couple put anything they could up against the front door -- quilts, blankets -- anything they could to try to stop the water. They had no idea that it was going to come through here with such force and so much of it -- basically destroying all their floors and a lot of their furnishings, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY MADDOX, FERNLEY, NEVADA: Heartbreaking. I just feel like crying right now, you know, for all these things. We've been married 45 years and we -- I collected -- we collected all this stuff, you know, for all the years that we've been married. And then now it's all destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: You can see the mud everywhere. And it left a calling card here. You can see where the waterline was -- just how high it was inside the house -- probably about a foot-and-a-half here. And the worst of it, for many people in this area, is that they don't have flood insurance -- because why would you have flood insurance when you live in the desert -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Susan, thanks so much. And covering that story, as well, T.J. Holmes.
He's at our National Desk tracking all the other stories that we're working on from the CNN NEWSROOM -- T.J.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, a lot of stuff to track from over here and these are the folks that do it. This is where the magic happens, if you will, over here, Kyra, at the National Desk. Hundreds of affiliates that they're monitoring. And this is also where they take in a lot of video and coordinate a lot of video coming in to us.
And what we're getting new video of is this tragedy that we're seeing out in Utah. It happened in the southeastern corner of that state. A bus crash -- this was a charter bus. This is the newest video we're seeing from affiliate KSL.
But this is some of the day time and the latest video we're getting. But this was carrying 50 people who were, most of them, coming back from a ski trip over the weekend. We don't know exactly what happened to the bus, but apparently it was going around a curve, went off the road and flipped several times, went down some 40 feet down an embankment.
Eight people killed in this bus crash. Another 19 had to be taken to the hospital. And what's so horrible here is that actually when the bus started to roll over, according to authorities there, the roof -- as you can see there -- the roof ripped off and several people were ejected from that bus. And, again, we have eight killed in this rollover accident.
Just one of several stories they've been monitoring here. And taking, like I said, new video in, as well, and, again, just hundreds of affiliates to monitor. But a horrible story we've been keeping an eye on -- they've been keeping an eye on here at the National Desk.
I just wanted to give you that update -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: T.J. , thanks.
HOLMES: All right.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's a long way from New Hampshire -- a really long way. But it's a place that's close to Barack Obama's heart and it's home to 21 of his biggest supporters.
CNN's Paula Newton pays a visit to Obama's ancestral homeland in Kenya.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To get to the Obama family farm, we traveled across the equator through some of Kenya's most remote villages, left at the gravel road -- turn for the Senator Obama School, up the dusty hill and over potholes like you've never seen -- not even in New Hampshire -- and right onto the Obama homestead.
(on camera): Hello. Hello. I'm Paula Newton with CNN.
(voice-over): This is Mama Sarah -- Barack Obama's granny, as he calls her. This is where his father was born and grew up, and where 83-year-old Mama Sarah still lives.
(on camera): We interrupted your work today.
SARAH ONYANGO OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA'S GRANDMOTHER: Yes.
NEWTON (voice-over): As her grandson is busy bringing in the votes, she's bringing in the crops -- preparing feed for the livestock. But it doesn't keep her from campaigning.
(on camera): What could you tell the American people about Barack, you know, to convince them to vote for him?
(voice-over): In her native language, she says...
SARAH OBAMA (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): He's a good listener and if he's given a chance, he will work hard for America.
NEWTON (on camera): What do you think of Hillary Clinton?
SARAH OBAMA (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): "This is a contest," she says diplomatically. "Let the best man or woman win."
NEWTON (on camera): When was this picture taken?
SAID OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA'S UNCLE: This was taken in 1987.
NEWTON (voice-over): Said Obama is Barack's uncle. He shows us a photo of his nephew's first visit to his Kenyan ancestral home, just after his father died.
Barack Hussein Obama is buried here. Mama Sarah says he'd heartbroken to see Kenya now. The Obamas say they don't recognize the Kenya of the past few days -- the bloodshed, despair and desperate need triggered by the disputed election. The Obama School hasn't even been able to open this year because of the clashes.
SAID OBAMA: Yes, they expected Kenya to be to be the beacon of hope in this region. But, again, politicians are politicians.
NEWTON: Though, he insists, Barack Obama is different -- humble like no other, he says. And that's because of his Kenyan ancestry -- right down to this farm.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
PHILLIPS: Wow. Paula Newton joining us live now out of Kenya.
I'm curious to know -- their lives are probably already changing tremendously, Paula -- and probably even more so if he becomes president.
NEWTON: Oh, God, that is something that you can even see the anxiety on their face, that they're starting to think about how their lives change. And, Kyra, they change day by day with the race. Certainly when the caucuses happened, they got more phone calls. It kind of went nuts for them.
You know, I made a joke with his mother. I kind of said how do you tolerate us -- we keep calling you talking to you. And she's like we just want to be here. We want to make sure that we're there to support Barack Obama.
And they really do live exactly the way they would if Barack Obama, the senator, were not running for president right now. It is utterly incredible to actually see when you're there.
PHILLIPS: Wow. I can just imagine.
Well, you look at these two different worlds, Paula. Here she is, living a very simple life, living on the farm. I know that she wasn't thrilled that her son ended up marrying a white woman and went on to lead a totally different life away from there. But she is recognizing, OK, my family has branched out. I have two different worlds I'm sort of living in.
How is she dealing with that?
How is she bridging the cultures?
NEWTON: You know, I think she deals with it in her own way, with that quiet poise that she has. She is trying to grasp it all. You know, when we were talking, Kyra, she kept asking me questions about how the primaries operate, how the caucuses operate. I mean, she's really into it. You know, Kyra, at the same time, though, she's not about to change her life. You know, I asked her -- I said, you know, why don't you just move to the United States and hang out with your grandson and the family or -- and she said no. She goes -- she made a joke.
She said who would be here to receive you people if I left for America? But, really, she is staying to her lifestyle and that's what she wants. And yet she is fiercely proud of her grandson, the senator. And, you know, she said the proudest thing that she had to say is that when he was on the farm as a student, she -- he helped her every day on the farm, just doing whatever she needed done. And he got there and he pitched in. She says that's the greatest single thing that makes her proud to call him her grandson.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, she seems very feisty, very spirited. Personally, what was it like for you? What kind of impression did she leave on you? What were your thoughts when you left the farm?
NEWTON: Well, I mean, you can see just driving up to it, it really is in the middle of nowhere -- not an exaggeration. They are very far from the closest village. And, Kyra, the whole time you're thinking about, you think it's a possibility -- the president of the United States could have a Kenyan grandmother living on the farm here. And, of course, that opens up a whole host of questions, not the least of which is security.
But right now, you just think what a story line. I mean, it's as far-fetched as any piece of fiction.
PHILLIPS: Our Paula Newton there via broadband. We had just lost that signal.
I love it. Our own Paula Newton giving Barack Obama's grandmother lessons on what a caucus is and what a primary is. Fantastic reporting. A great job from our own Paula Newton.
Well, if you want to win New Hampshire, you've got to go through Dixville Notch first. Where the heck is that? Well, we'll explain. It's a tiny town, you're right. But it's got a big tradition.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, Dixville Notch, New Hampshire -- the town might not be in the running for the next Olympics, but it does play a major role in politics. People there cast the first ballots in the nation's first primary, as well as on election night in November -- people like Kader Temkkit, Michelle Weinfeld-Johnson and Rick Erwin. They're here with us now to talk about their granite-sized task.
Good to see all three of you.
MICHELLE WEINFELD-JOHNSON, DIXVILLE NOTCH VOTER: Thank you.
RICK ERWIN, DIXVILLE NOTCH VOTER: Hi.
KADER TEMKKIT, DIXVILLE NOTCH VOTER: Hi.
PHILLIPS: Hey, guys. I mean it's such a small town and I tell you, we were trying to figure out exactly where Dixville Notch is. Michelle, explain where you are exactly.
JOHNSON: Well, as my friends who come to visit say, we're two hours from nowhere.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: But we are actually in the northern portion of New Hampshire, up near the Canadian border.
PHILLIPS: All right. And, Rick, give us a little background here. I mean, you have been a very important part of politics. Explain the history behind the voting there.
ERWIN: Well, we started the tradition in Dixville Notch back in 1960 with voting in the general election and have been voting continuously in election cycles since then. I think this is our thirteenth consecutive election cycle.
PHILLIPS: And tell -- let's talk about just the history, though, and the influence. A lot of politicians have come through there. I mean we found pictures of Ronald Reagan. And even here in 2008, we've got presidential possibilities coming through your town.
Why do they stop through there? Why do they party with you? Why do they want to get to know you?
ERWIN: Well, we have -- by getting this vote out right at midnight, at the beginning of the voting day, I think they feel that if they can get their name out there on a couple of votes that we may be able to -- they may be able to influence someone by saying OK, they're electable.
PHILLIPS: And, Kader, how have the predictions gone in the past?
I mean is it usually Democrats or Republicans who come out winning?
Can you even -- can you even say one way or another?
ERWIN: You want me to take that?
TEMKKIT: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Go ahead, Rick.
TEMKKIT: I think we have (INAUDIBLE).
ERWIN: Yes, that's OK.
It's -- since 1968, the Republican that's won in Dixville has gone on to get the nomination. But the Democratic side has been a little bit less predictable than that.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, Kader, let me ask you about your kids. I was reading that the most exciting thing for them is that they get to stay up until midnight.
TEMKKIT: I have two of them, yes. They're going to be with my wife and myself and be up until midnight. And they will be part of the experience. And it's going to be good for them. And but until then, (INAUDIBLE) they're going to be in the bed sleeping because (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: (LAUGHTER) Very good. And, Michelle, you know, tell me...
TEMKKIT: Thank you.
COOPER: ...what this is like for the town and how everybody gears up. Do they throw a big party? I mean there's -- how many people are there now? It's 16, right?
JOHNSON: Currently, we have 16 registered voters. We have not had a big party per se, but we've certainly had a lot of fun in meeting the candidates that have come through and getting to know them on a little bit of a more intimate level. And then, of course, amongst ourselves, we enjoy talking it up and sharing our opinions and things like that.
PHILLIPS: Now, Kader, you were born in France and then -- how did you end up in Dixville Notch?
(LAUGHTER)
TEMKKIT: This is -- OK, I met my wife in France. She's from Minnesota. And after a few years, we moved to Chicago, where we lived for 15 -- 18 years. And after a job opportunity -- and now I'm here in New Hampshire. It took me a while to, you know, to give the name away to New Hampshire. That's (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: Is this your first presidential vote?
TEMKKIT: Yes. Yes.
PHILLIPS: It is?
TEMKKIT: In New Hampshire?
Yes. Yes. In New Hampshire, yes.
PHILLIPS: OK.
TEMKKIT: But, you know, I did vote in Chicago.
PHILLIPS: Oh, Ok. All right.
And do you have a candidate so far -- a favorite candidate?
TEMKKIT: I'm between two candidates now. Two candidates so I'll -- you know, I'll maybe like a pro-life candidate.
PHILLIPS: OK. Michelle, what about you?
JOHNSON: I have decided and I'm going with Obama.
PHILLIPS: You're going with Obama. And Rick?
JOHNSON: I am.
ERWIN: I'm 97 percent decided. And I'm not going to -- I don't think I'm going on to divulge that right now. But I feel akin to all the other voters in New Hampshire that seemed to wait until the last minute to make up their minds.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, Michelle, Rick and Kader, thank you so much. We'll be following you at the stroke of midnight, seeing how it goes and tracking your predictions and seeing what happened from that point. All right, thank you both -- or all three of you -- for joining us.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right.
ERWIN: Thank you.
TEMKKIT: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
Well, for more on the New Hampshire primary, you can go to cnn.com/politics. It's your one stop shop for all things political.
Attorney, TV host and new mom -- Nancy Grace shares her new perspective on her professional life now that she has little twins at home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right Chad Myers is getting word of some video that we're getting in.
Am I, right?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
PHILLIPS: You were just -- a car in -- where is this? Phoenix, Arizona? Here we go.
MYERS: Yes. Most likely north and east of Phoenix. I haven't seen any locaters on this, but probably up toward the Salt -- area Salt Creek and maybe toward the Superstitions, because that's where most of the rain was. That was three to five inches of rainfall to the northeast of Phoenix just in the past 24 hours.
Clearly, a truck there trying to get through the dry wash -- because it usually dry -- through the arroyo. Clearly, not dry today. I don't know if there's anybody in that truck or not. They don't seem to be too frantically trying to get to that truck at all. But, clearly, this rain has been coming down now for a couple of days and running down into these arroyos, into these washes. And we're going to see more of this, especially east and northeast of Phoenix, Arizona -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: I'm told that no one is in there right now...
MYERS: That's good.
PHILLIPS: ...that everybody was rescued out of that truck. But, boy, we are seeing the aftermath of those heavy storms over the past couple of days.
MYERS: Yes. Right. And now even -- now, something else we have going to the east, even for Chicago, Illinois for this afternoon -- a tornado watch for you right now.
PHILLIPS: Wow. All right.
MYERS: It's all over the place.
PHILLIPS: It's getting busy.
MYERS: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Well, it never stops, I guess.
Chad Myers, thanks.
Lawyer, TV host and, most importantly, new mom -- our very own Nancy Grace of CNN "HEADLINE PRIME" is back on the air tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. She's got two new viewers, too. And as you can probably guess, giving birth to John David and Lucy Elizabeth has shed new light on some of the criminal cases that Nancy covers, as she told Robin Meade on CNN "HEADLINE NEWS" Morning Express.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Everybody keeps asking me, are we going to see a softer, gentler Nancy Grace?
Number one, I don't know what they mean by that. But, number two, when I hold them in my arms and I look at them, I cannot imagine someone hurting a child. And as far as I'm concerned, child molesters, child abusers, people that kill their children, they can all rot in hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: That's right, our Nancy Grace is back, laying it, folks. And you can hear about her whole story, by the way, with the twins there in "People" magazine. A wonderful article. She told the magazine that before she had the babies, she never allowed herself to love 100 percent. That's changed. Check out more with Nancy Grace. She's blogging about her new life on CNN.com.
The closing bell and a wrap of the action on Wall Street, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street.
Susan Lisovicz is standing by with a final look at the trading day -- hey, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, how about some comic relief?
You know, we've been talking for months of the Nintendo Wii. It has fanatics all over the U.S.
Who knew that one lives in Buckingham Palace?
Yes, according to "The People," which is a British publication, Queen Elizabeth, at 81, shows all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict. She actually has taken her grandson Will's Wii -- which was a Christmas present from his girlfriend -- and has become quite a natural at it. She also has a Blackberry and an iPod.
God save the queen.
(LAUGHTER)
LISOVICZ: That's wonderful.
PHILLIPS: Queenie needs a little bit more to do if she's playing on the Wii.
LISOVICZ: It's all those ladies in waiting, I think.
(LAUGHTER)
LISOVICZ: The man walks behind her. She doesn't carry money in her purse. Hey.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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