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Obama Widens Lead: Double-Digit Lead Over Clinton; Deadly Bus Crash In Utah; Violent Election Protests in Kenya; One-on-One Interview with Bill Richardson: Where He Stands on Issues; Undecided in New Hampshire: Voters Look For Inspiration

Aired January 07, 2008 - 07:00   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the desperate search for two families missing on snowmobiles.
Plus, a view of the future. What's new and coming your way from the Consumer Electronics Show. Live from Las Vegas on this AMERICAN MORNING.

All of the latest gadgets that you'll be able to go shopping for in the months ahead as people here in New Hampshire go shopping for candidates and who they want to vote for in tomorrow's primary.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, and we're here this morning in Concord, New Hampshire, at the City Side Grille this morning. Placards covering the wall, Ron Paul, Obama, Hillary, NH supports Fred, so a lot going on. The last-minute push until tomorrow's primary.

ROBERTS: It's a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING coming to you here from the City Side Grille. We're talking with four presidential candidates this morning. We already talked with Mike Huckabee. We've got Bill Richardson coming up as well as Ron Paul. He's back again after getting excluded from a debate last night on a rival network. And John Edwards coming up as well. What was that about Ron Paul not being invited there?

CHETRY: Oh, we're going to ask him about it because his supporters were not happy with that and actually launch us -- they always do quite successfully about fury of blog complaints about it. Actually, though, if you were watching CNN last night, you could see him because we ran portions of the ABC-WMUR debate where Ron Paul went head to head with the other candidates about some of those big things like foreign policy and the economy.

ROBERTS: And in fact, a little bit later on in this hour, we'll be talking with one of the moderators of that debate to get his sense of where things are going here in New Hampshire. He's a local fellow, does one of the local newscasts here, knows all about the issues in the granite state. So we'll be talking with him, about what people should look for as we keep watch on what's going to happen tomorrow here in New Hampshire, the all-important first in the nation primary.

CHETRY: That's right. And right behind us this morning, we have a room full of voters, many of them still undecided. Many of them are still going to be listening throughout the day and until tomorrow to hear what the candidates say about the big issues that are important to them. So we are going to talk to them in a couple of minutes.

But first, we want to get you up to date on some of the polls here. Just days after his big win in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama opens up a double digit lead here in New Hampshire. Now, according to the latest CNN-WMUR poll, which was conducted over the weekend after Iowa by the University of New Hampshire, 39 percent of likely Democratic voters are going to be voting for Obama. They say 29 percent for Hillary Clinton, and 16 percent for John Edwards.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has been traveling with the Clinton campaign this weekend, and she joins us now with more on that. So both Senator Clinton as well as John Edwards lost support. According to the latest poll, it was Obama who seemed to have gained. How is Hillary's camp taking that information and changing the way that they are doing things?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, this is a totally new campaign. It changed. It's morphed in the last 48 hours or so. What you are seeing is that she's taking a lot of questions from the audience or thousands of people that are lined up outside of these venues. And she is trying to show a couple of things here. The talking points to her surrogates that she's saying look, it's about talk. It's about action not talk. It is about -- not about rhetoric but rather reality.

These are the things that she's trying to stress, so she's trying to build up her own resume, at the same time tear down Barack Obama's resume. I had a chance to talk to her yesterday, and I asked her quite simply about Iowa, whether any lessons learned because she lost to the young voters and she lost the female vote. And here is how she responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm not looking back. That's in the rearview mirror. You know, one of the reasons you have so many contests in a short period of time is because every one of them leads to another one. And we're going to fight this campaign out until February 5th when there will finally be a decision. I'm thrilled to be here in New Hampshire. I feel very much at home here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So what are they doing within her campaign to make sure that New Hampshire doesn't look like Iowa?

MALVEAUX: Well, sure. You know, one of the events that I went to literally they're taking down the barriers. She said, Chelsea, you know, get rid of that barrier. Bring more people in. The fire marshal said that, you know, there were too many people so they packed them all in. But obviously, they're reaching out to young voters. They've got them on our campaign bus now. They've got those talking points out there. They're certainly hoping that if they push this idea about her experience and her records, they'll be able to win over some of those voters. CHETRY: A lot of undecideds here in the state, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Suzanne, thank you.

MALVEAUX: Exciting race.

CHETRY: It is -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. Thanks very much, Kiran.

On the Republican side of things, our new CNN-WMUR poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows that Mike Huckabee is moving up just a little bit. But John McCain firmly in the lead. Here is the latest numbers.

McCain with 32 percent. Mitt Romney in second place at 26 percent. Mike Huckabee at 14 percent now. Rudy Giuliani at 11 percent. They have actually swapped positions since our last poll. It was Giuliani, 14. Huckabee, 11. And now, Huckabee 14, Giuliani 11. And Ron Paul back there at 10 percent because of the number of Independents that are here in the granite state. A lot of people believe that Ron Paul might have a good showing tomorrow. And what might that mean for the race going forward?

Mike Huckabee continues to campaign here in New Hampshire. He joins us just a little while ago here on AMERICAN MORNING. Last night, he and former Governor Mitt Romney really took each other on over the issue of taxes. It's been a real terse back and forth between the two candidates. I asked the governor this morning if that's where he wanted to be in the final hours before the voting tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not the one who's having these visions of marching with Martin Luther King and imagining having the NRA endorsement when I didn't. I actually got NRA endorsements when I ran for governor because my views in the second amendment are consistent. My views in the sanctity of life are consistent, not only what I say but what I have done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Huckabee repeated to us this morning that he believes that John McCain is the best position to win the primary here in New Hampshire and that he would consider a third or even fourth place finish for himself to be a victory here.

Still ahead, we got lots of presidential candidates to talk to. We've got Ron Paul coming up in our final hour here of AMERICAN MORNING. As well, we're going to be talking with John Edwards and Bill Richardson in the house here at the City Side Grille in Concord, New Hampshire, and he'll be joining us in just a couple of minutes -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Thanks a lot, John. We have a lot of other stories making headlines overnight. And for that, we go to Alina Cho. She's standing by right now in New York with the very latest developments for us including this horrible bus accident that we've been hearing about out of Utah, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. Good morning and good morning, everybody. We are following some breaking news out of Utah this morning. A bus crashed overnight killing at least seven people. The Utah Highway Patrol says the bus was heading from Telluride, Colorado, to Phoenix, when it flipped over near the town of Mexican Hat. About 80 passengers were onboard that bus. No word on the cause, but heavy snow has been falling there all weekend long.

And the search is on right now for eight people missing in the Colorado Rockies. Rescue teams will be heading out again this morning. The search was suspended over the weekend. They are looking for two couples and their two teenage children. They've been missing since Friday when they failed to return from a snowmobiling trip near the New Mexico border. Two skiers are also missing in the area. At least four feet of snow fell over the weekend, and more is falling today.

And hundreds of people are out of their homes in Nevada after a fierce winter storm there. A levee gave way in Fernley, Nevada. That's about 30 miles from Reno. Hundreds of homes are flooded with as much as eight feet of icy water. Some folks had to be rescued by boat and helicopter.

AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence is live in Fernley for us. So Chris, I understand that officials were hoping to get some sort of accurate damage assessment by today or tomorrow. What's it look like where you are right now?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alina, it's better than it was this weekend, but in a way that's like saying it's a little better than just plain awful. You know, you can take a look here. I mean, you can see some of the debris that's still in the street behind me. And you could see here the water has definitely receded. No way we could have been standing out here over the weekend, but you can see underneath there's just a sheet of ice now. You know, it's gotten so cold here. It is just going to make it that much tougher for the folks here to get some their homes cleaned up.

Now, take a look at what this neighborhood and the streets around it looked like just over the weekend. That difference you see is due to both a really lot of intense work, pumping all this water out of the neighborhoods, as well as repairing that breach in the levee. A lot of the officials believe that it was some sort of gopher or rodent that burrowed a hole in the canal banks. Normally, not that big of a problem. But when the volume of water rises and it doubled during this most recent storm, that water just ripped right through those weak spots in the canal.

Now, imagine though what some of these folks here in the neighborhood were going through, three, four, five feet of icy cold water and oozing mud, just pouring right through their home. One man said it felt like his home had been dropped in the middle of the river. Some of the neighbors here had to be rescued on pontoon boats and helicopters. And a lot of folks still are not able to get into their home. We spoke with some of the residents who were trying to help out their fellow neighbors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL LAYMAN, FLOODED RESIDENT: You know, giving them a place to stay for a month or so. And then just see what happens and try to rebuild our community as best as we can because it -- Fernley is a -- it's a good community. It's a good group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Again, you could see some of the ice, some of the water that's still here in this neighborhood, some of the damage that people are going to have to deal with. FEMA investigators are on the scene here assessing some of the damage. We hope to get a better estimate of that sometime later today or tomorrow -- Alina.

CHO: What an awful way to start the new year. All right. Chris Lawrence live for us in Fernley, Nevada. Chris, thank you. We'll check back with you later.

Police in Georgia, meantime, now say they believe a hiker missing since New Year's Day is dead. Investigators say they believe 24-year- old Meredith Emerson was the victim of a violent kidnapping. Police say her wallet and bloody clothes were found over the weekend in a trash can next to a grocery store about 50 miles from where she disappeared. A suspect is now in police custody.

61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton is his name. He heads to court today. He is also being questioned about two elderly hikers in North Carolina in October. One of them was beaten to death. The other disappeared.

Rob Marciano is off today. Jacqui Jeras at our weather update desk tracking the extreme weather for us. And we've had warmer weather here in New York. I know, it's warming up in the Midwest, too. Right, Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it really is. You know, but we're going to combine that, unfortunately, with all that moisture from the pacific originally, and it is going to spell kind of a mess today across parts of the Midwest. That warm air right now riding over the snow pack across Wisconsin and Michigan creating very foggy conditions. That fog was prevalent yesterday as well and caused a 30- car pileup near Madison, Wisconsin.

Take a look at these pictures here. This is along I-90. A section of it was shut down yesterday, but the Wisconsin State Patrol clearing out this accident. Two people have died in this incident. The fog remains bad and visibility is down to about a quarter of a mile right now in Madison.

Well, we've got some rain coming in. There you can see the flood watches in effect, including Milwaukee, Chicago, right towards Fort Wayne. The rain relatively light right now, but check out what's going on in eastern Iowa.

Some of these center storms becoming severe. Severe thunderstorm warning in effect for Jones County. You could see some hail up to the size of about an inch with that storm. Severe storms more likely later on this afternoon across the plains states, including Kansas City, St. Louis, down towards Little Rock and into northeastern parts of Texas.

Now, the good news out of all of this, of course, are the temperatures. They are going to be incredibly warm for this time of year. Many record highs can be expected today. And temps will be about 30 degrees above average across the Corn Belt states and then to the Ohio Valley. Those warm temperatures are moving into the northeastern corridor. And while the Iowa caucuses, temperatures were way below average and looking at wind chills around 15 below. Alina, John and Kiran are looking at temperatures today and tomorrow into the 50s. Way above average. They should only be like 30 degrees for a high.

CHO: Perfectly balmy, Jacqui, and that's going to affect turnout. Hopefully we'll have a big turnout for tomorrow's primary. Jacqui Jeras looking at all the weather situation for us. We'll check back with you later, Jacqui. Now, I'm going to send it back to John at the City Side Grille in Concord, and I know you have a busy hour ahead, John. I'll check back with you later.

ROBERTS: We certainly do. Alina, thanks very much.

We are following new developments this morning in Kenya. New reports say nearly 500 people have been killed in protests over Kenya's presidential election. Our state department correspondent Zain Verjee is a native of Kenya, and she joins us now live from Nairobi. Zain, what's being done to resolve this situation there?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, the top U.S. diplomats of Africa has been here in Nairobi talking multiple times with both sides. And just a few moments ago, it seems as though she was able to get a major breakthrough. What's happened is that the opposition was planning a major and possibly violent rally tomorrow and now says they are going to call the rally off.

I just got off the phone with the spokesman of the opposition and said that one of the things that they wanted was finally agreed to and that was that they get international mediation as soon as possible. So the head of the African Union, President Kufuor is going to be here in Nairobi tomorrow night to mediate. They made this announcement right after the opposition leader met with Jendayi Frazer.

As you said, hundreds here have been killed and thousands have been displaced. Earlier today, we spoke exclusively to Jendayi Frazer and she told us that dialogues here in Kenya was essential to get democracy back on track. She called the situation dangerous and disappointing and had a warning to the leaders here if the talks fail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENDAYI E. FRAZER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR AFRICAN AFFAIRS: I think Kenya is going to be a long future of instability if, in fact, they don't address the fundamental questions. And so, getting the politicians to dialogue is not just about the past election, it's about the future of this country and owning up to the real crisis that we are all seeing the evidence of over the past week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: It's a real positive development, John, that this opposition rally has been called off. There was a huge amount of tension in the country still. We were at a slum a short while ago where people have just left their homes and they were seeking refuge elsewhere because they were so afraid that they would be targeted by their neighbors -- John.

ROBERTS: Zain, this is a story that really hits home for you. As we said, you were born in Kenya. You know the lay of the land there. What's the humanitarian situation like as a result of this violence?

VERJEE: Well, you've got something like as many as 250,000 people that have been displaced in this country. I talked to aid agencies today, who said that it's really difficult for them to get access to these people, although some aid is beginning to trickle in to them. But the majority of them are facing starvation. They can't get through on the roads. Some of the trucks say the drivers want security. So there is a debate about that and that's delaying aid.

Also, people in the slums need food. And aid agencies are worried that if they go in with food they'll be robbed. If they give people food, those people would be robbed -- John.

ROBERTS: Wow. Difficult situation there. Zain Verjee for us live this morning from Nairobi, Kenya. Zain, thanks very much -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, this is a disturbing story out of Florida. A fire chief there could lose his job over topless photos that he took at a crash scene. The 26-year-old victim later died after she ran her SUV into a tree. He reportedly e-mailed them to other fire departments. The fire chief, Richard Shirk, is now suspended. The city says that he admitted he took the pictures and said that he does so at all accident scenes for educational purposes.

Well, we're hosting presidential candidates right here at the City Side Grille all morning long at the diner here in Concord, New Hampshire. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson is here with us. In fact, he's already behind us right now talking to some of those undecided voters. He says he is ready to change the minds. We're going to hear from him, talk to him about some of the issues. And then after, we'll check in with some of the voters to see if it made a difference. That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Eighteen minutes now after the hour. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson says that he has the best foreign policy experience of all of the Democrats running. What is his message for voters here in New Hampshire? Governor Richardson joins us now this morning at the City Side Grille in Concord. Good morning. Good to see you again.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nice to be with you.

ROBERTS: We always seem to catch up at these diners.

RICHARDSON: I know. About 3:00 in the morning. But it's great to be with you.

ROBERTS: You've got dynamite home fries here.

RICHARDSON: Oh, I know, I know. I'm going to get a chance to try to get something to eat.

ROBERTS: Big story in "The New York Times" yesterday. It suggests that the administration is considering more covert activity in Pakistan to attack Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and get some of the pressure off of the Musharraf government. Is that a policy that you can side on to?

RICHARDSON: Yes. And one of the reasons is that Musharraf is basically infective. Not only doesn't he have the support of his people because he doesn't support democracy and is a dictator, but with the $11 billion we've been giving him to go after Al Qaeda, he has not done it. He has done an infective job. He's afraid of his own domestic political base. So, you know, some covert activity, other ways to go after Al Qaeda, that's growing that's regrouping.

Yes. You know, you got to look at alternative measures, so I suspect I'd be supportive of this. I don't have all the details. I don't get my intelligence briefing anymore. I don't think the White House would give it to me.

ROBERTS: After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, you called for Musharraf to step aside. Would that not leave a dangerous power vacuum in the interim in Pakistan?

RICHARDSON: No, John, because in the Pakistani constitution there has been precedent for there to be a caretaker government run by technocrats until the next election. The next election is in February. So that would set the stage for a broadly based government. By the way, Nawaz Sharif, I'm not name-dropping, called me two days ago. He's the former prime minister who is one of the leading opposition leaders.

ROBERTS: Who has never had a very good relationship with the United States.

RICHARDSON: That's right. But he, you know, he has said to me that he thinks it's right for me to ask Musharraf to step aside so there would be broadly based elections. He would face the Benazir Bhutto party, and I think that's best for the United States. A broadly based race, democracy opposition figures and then lean on them to go after Al Qaeda.

With Musharraf, we get the worst of all worlds. We get a dictator who has no support by his people. This is a country that has nuclear weapons. We don't want them to fall with Al Qaeda. And then we've got somebody that refuses to go after terrorists.

ROBERTS: On the campaign trail, Governor, you say that you are the one who's got the experience to be the real agent of change in American politics as we look towards who might win the White House in November of this year. But listening to Iowa voters and what they said on caucus night, they suggest that Barack Obama in the Democratic Party is the agent of change. So how here in the granite state do you bridge that gap?

RICHARDSON: Well, what I say is with Bill Richardson you get change and you get experience. You got to have experience to change things. You got to have a record. I've got a foreign policy record as U.N. ambassador, as energy secretary. I'm a governor. I'm the only one that's managed -- I'm the only one that created jobs.

You know, here in New Hampshire, the problem here is that half of the graduates that graduate from college, leave the state because there are not enough high-wage jobs. Nobody in this campaign is talking about the economy and jobs. I created jobs. I cut taxes.

ROBERTS: So what would you do here?

RICHARDSON: Well, what I would do here is try to attract companies that are manufacturing, that are new companies -- solar, wind, biomass, biofuels, biotechnology, companies of the future, and say if you pay over the prevailing wage, you move into a rural area and we will give you a tax incentive.

Whatever happened to the Democratic Party that used to be a pro- growth, innovation party, entrepreneurial party. That's what I am trying to convey here, and that is playing well in New Hampshire. I'm moving up slowly. But you know, we got 50 primaries to go. You guys are already calling winners. I can't believe it.

ROBERTS: I'm not calling any winners here.

RICHARDSON: I know. I know. I know.

ROBERTS: I'm just suggesting that Barack Obama won Iowa. I think I'm right about that. But I'm not sure, I could be wrong.

RICHARDSON: You know, he deserves a lot of credit. He had a lot of bunch of new voters we never anticipated. You know, I did OK there. But he had so many more supporters that turned out.

ROBERTS: A lot of Independents as well. Although, it looks like some of those are going to McCain here in New Hampshire. Saturday night's debate, do you say that you won it? There was a lot of back and forth between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Let's take a quick listen to your observation and all of that attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have been in hostage negotiations that are a lot more civil than this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: You have studiously been avoiding all of this back and forth. Why?

RICHARDSON: Because voters don't want to be negative. Voters want us to be positive about the country, about what we are going to do. You know, we shouldn't be attacking each other personally and whether you are in the pockets of special interests and just rust each other.

Policy differences, yes, like I want to get all the troops out of Iraq and some of my fellow candidates want to keep them until 2013. Point out those differences but not get personal, and I think it's getting too personal. That's not good. Voters don't like that, so I'm a diplomat. I'm a peacemaker. I'm staying above that. That's what I would do as president. Bring people together, not engage in these cat fights.

ROBERTS: One more follow up question for you. If there comes a point in this race where you can't continue, is there any particular candidate that you would urge your supporters to back?

RICHARDSON: No. You know, I think we got a lot of good candidates. Any of those candidates on the stage, including myself, would be a good president. So, no. I'd stay out. You know, but I'm going to win this thing. You watch. You watch.

We got 50 primaries to go. And half of the commentators, national news media, they are not hearing what New Hampshire is saying. You watch. They are going to send a message. My objective is to be in the top three tomorrow. I'm moving up. You watch.

ROBERTS: We will be watching very closely.

RICHARDSON: Thank you.

ROBERTS: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, always a pleasure to see you. Thanks for coming in this morning.

Another presidential hopeful is going to be joining us later on this hour, John Edwards, on his plans to bring change to Washington and his hopes for tomorrow's big primary. Governor Richardson has already locked up the third spot so that leaves only second, first or fourth for John Edwards. That's 20 minutes from now on AMERICAN MORNING. So, are these last-minute messages by the candidates changing anyone's mind? Undecided voters will be joining us coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: All right. Welcome back. As we've been talking about, a lot of this is going to depend on where the undecided voters decide to go tomorrow when they cast their votes in the primary election. And here at the City Side Grille, we have a lot of people who are still undecided.

Joining me now, we have Matthew and Rick. You guys are both leaning toward Bill Richardson. What are some of the things you want to hear from Richardson that would push him over the edge and make you decide to vote for him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For him, it's really about health care and how he's going to integrate preventative care into health care. And we all would like to have universal health care but we need to have some sense of not turning it into a very expensive entitlement. I want to hear him talk about that, the economics of it.

CHETRY: Economics. The economic issue is big for you. How about you, Rick.

RICK COFFMAN, LEANING TOWARDS RICHARDSON: Economics, jobs. We just had a paper mill (ph) just closing in the state is losing 300 people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

COFFMAN: We need to bring people back to work in this country. Not just the state, but this whole country, and I think he can maybe do it.

CHETRY: All right. And we are also talking with Karen (ph) and Ben. Both of are you leaning a little bit toward Obama. But you said something interesting, Karen, which was that you really wouldn't be that disappointed with any of the candidates. You like the field. So what's it going to come down to for you?

KAREN, LEANING TOWARDS OBAMA: Well, I think it is more like who makes a misstep than it is, you know, who does something extremely right. I'm leaning towards Obama because I think he is inspiring and that the people of America really need to feel hopeful and inspired and proud of being Americans and we haven't felt that way, or I haven't felt that way for quite a long time.

I'm a little disappointed that Hillary has sent out some literature that implied that Obama was not pro-choice. And that was disappointing to me because when I did my research I found out that he was.

CHETRY: So you don't like the negative campaigning? You don't like the misleading campaigning? KAREN: No.

CHETRY: And Ben, let me ask you, what is it going to take to push you over the edge for Obama since you're leaning towards him?

BEN KIMBALL, LEANING TOWARDS OBAMA: Well, I've actually been really impressed by all of the top four candidates here. But one thing I would really like to see come more to the fore is the issue of climate change and that's one thing I think that very unfortunately, America's kind of been on the trailing end of. And in the world's opinion and that is something important that I would like to see addressed and I'll look into the next 24 hours.

CHETRY: That's the view of New Hampshire and some of these small primary states, the early states, because the vote -- voters can ask those types of specific questions through their candidates when they meet them in person. And they certainly have an advantage when it comes to being able to select their candidate based on what they hear one on one. So very unique situation here. We are live in Concord all morning. And we're going to be talking with more undecided voters are. Thank you guys for your input. Very interesting, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: You are watching the most news in the morning, Kiran. Candidates debated over the weekend and things got pretty heated. We're going to find out how they are sharpening their message. John Edwards joins us live coming up in just a little while.

And Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf speaks out about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and what he says was a fatal mistake. The story in today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome it is Monday, January 7th. Here is a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're live this morning from Concord, New Hampshire. I'm Kiran Chetry.

ROBERTS: Hey, good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. And I'm looking forward to having breakfast in this place. Apparently the home fries are out of this world.

CHETRY: He is looking forward to it and I'm trying to digest it as we speak. You have to get up early and get the home fries while they are still good.

ROBERTS: You got to get up early to beat you to breakfast. That's the main thing. Hey, everyone is still talking about the back to back debates over the weekend, hosted by ABC, WMUR-TV in New Hampshire and Facebook. We got one of those people who was intimately involved with it.

CHETRY: That's right. We got one of the moderators, Scott Spradling. He is the political director of WMUR. He co-hosted the event yesterday, Saturday. And then we re-aired it on CNN. It was great. So, I'm glad we did get a chance to re-air it. All the candidates included in this debate and we got some answers that we haven't seen in a while from some of these candidates.

SCOTT SPRADLING, WMUR, POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It was a great format. And Kiran and John, thanks for having me. I think what's the most successful piece of this debate was the fact that Charlie Gibson was able to step away from the lights and the buzzers that had to accompany so many of the traditional debates. We really got a chance for some honest exchanges that weren't limited by the time of the format.

ROBERTS: And of course, one of the exchanges that the candidates said was over who was the best agent of change. We've been talking about that all morning. Take a quick listen to the way that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama wanted that particular issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Making change is not about what you believe. It's not about a speech you make. It is about working hard. There are 7,000 kids in New Hampshire who have health care because I helped to create the children's health insurance program.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Folks out there feel the American dream is slipping away. They are working harder for less. They are paying more for health care, for college, for gas at the pump. And they are having a tougher time saving and retiring and what they don't feel is that the government is listening to them and responding to them. That's the kind of change that I think we need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Scott, in Iowa, Barack Obama appeared to make the best argument for being the agent of change. That's the way the voters went. Here in the granite state, how is it shaping up?

SPRADLING: It's the same way, John. The change argument is being won by Barack Obama. In fact, you can sort of see it on the campaign trail right now following this debate and over the last maybe 72 hours of this democratic primary race. Hillary Clinton is now talking about change. She is trying to make the case. She is in Barack's territory now on this entire debate. And from last night and into, I'm sorry, two nights ago and into the campaign trail yesterday, Hillary is now having to make the argument that what they are talking about is not change. I'm going to do it because I have done it.

CHETRY: She is 10 points behind Barack Obama in the latest polls by the way. Let's switch it to the GOP right now and one of the most enlightening parts of what they were talking about was many of them laid out their immigration policy and actually battled back and forth with each other about what they would do with the problem with illegal immigration. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This plan does not provide amnesty because it charges people $5,000 to be able to stay. JOHM MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's not true. That's not complete response to it. And Governor Romney, it was explained to you and you said it was reasonable and not amnesty. That's just - you can look it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: People had a chance to hear finally from McCain who has not talked so much about his immigration because it was widely unpopular with the GOP base. Who do you think did the best job explaining what they would do about immigration?

SPRADLING: I think in terms of detail and laying out the plans, Rudy Giuliani who was not a part of the exchange, did a really good job of laying out his plans, sort of confessing that you know what, these 12 million that we don't know what to do with, the illegals in the country right now, we can't just usher them all out. We have to figure out what do with them. He didn't lay out exactly what the plans would be but he was a few steps closer to sort of confessing the difficulties of dealing with illegals in the country right now.

ROBERTS: Is there one particular issue that you think this primary will turn out?

SPRADLING: I think change has become the overriding issue of this entire national primary. We saw it in Iowa and the voters that are headed to the polls and the polls that we saw from WMUR and CNN. They are showing it is about change.

ROBERTS: All right. Incredible.

CHETRY: Everyone is using the word "change," in one way or another.

SPRADLING: We all are. We all are.

CHETRY: All the candidates are just a matter of the devil is in the details, who do you believe and who do you think will do it best.

ROBERTS: Scott, thanks very much. Scott Spradling from WMUR. Good job on Saturday night.

SPRADLING: Thanks you two.

ROBERTS: Thanks for coming down this morning.

CHETRY: Stay with CNN for the New Hampshire primary. It begins, by the way, right here. AMERICAN MORNING live again tomorrow. We will be here in New Hampshire. The best political team on television will then be firing up for the live coverage of the New Hampshire primary. It all gets underway 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN, tomorrow night.

ROBERTS: And of course, first polls open at midnight too in Famous Dixfield Notch, way up near the Canadian border. And who is the candidate for change? As we have been talking about, John Edwards says when you look at him, you are looking at the best guy to bring about change. The former senator joins us. Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up on 19 minutes to the top of the hour here on AMERICAN MORNING. Ali Velshi in "Minding your Business" for us today. And Ali after that huge drop in the Dow on Friday, a lot of people wondering which way the markets are going to go today.

ALI VELSHI, CNN, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": And yes, John, interestingly enough, futures are up right now. According to a positive open when markets start up in a couple of hours from now. Boy, what a day on Friday. What a week. And what a morning overnight in Aisa. Let's take a look first of all at the week that we had last week. It was a short week, obviously.

But look at that for the week. Starting from Monday, Tuesday, we didn't trade, all the way to the end of the week. Dow was down 4.25 percent. Nasdaq down 6 1/3 percent. The S&P down 4.5 percent. That is one week. These are kind of numbers that you sometimes see in an entire year. This affected overseas markets. We saw Taiwanese markets down this morning, fairly substantially. We saw Australia. Look at that 3 percent. Nikkei in Japan and Hong Kong's index, we have a spelling error there so we'll forget that Hong Kong for a little while. Those markets are down but it seems to have ended. It seems to be moving into positive trading today. We're going to hear from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson this afternoon and from President Bush with some ideas about what Congress and the administration can actually do to help this economy. Nobody wants a recession in 2008 but lots of people are afraid that we might get one, John. Kiran.

ROBERTS: I don't know, Ali. That Honk Kong index...

VELSHI: That's a different one.

ROBERTS: Typically, in election year, the stock market does pretty well. The fact that it's down as much as it is in the first week of January. What does that (inaudible)

VELSHI: That's tough because January is often the gauge for how the year is going to go. But, you know, this is still where - a lot of people are hoping this is spillover from what we got at the end of 2007. The big issue here, John, as we saw those job numbers on Friday morning, the unemployment rate getting up to 5 percent. Only 18,000 new jobs created. That as you and I always talk about, that's the thing that hurts the most. Not housing, not energy prices. It's if we start losing jobs, that's the big deal.

ROBERTS: And the economy quickly emerging as the top issue in this campaign.

VELSHI: Absolutely.

ROBERTS: It certainly gives the candidates a lot to talk about. Ali Velshi, for us this morning. Ali, thanks. We will check back with you in a little while.

VELSHI: OK.

ROBERTS: Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, a late night switch topping your "Quick Hits." Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel have agreed to be guests on each other's shows. Both are struggling to book guests because of the writers' strike that's been on-going now for more than two months. Stars are reluctant to cross the picket lines. And so that means slim pickings when it comes to guests. Well, tonight Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert also return to comedy central without the writers.

Not just the supermodel. Naomi Campbell also an interviewer. Talking with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for "GQ Magazine," Campbell says Chavez is unafraid to speak his mind but poses no threat to democracy. Chavez defends his country's record of human rights, and shares his views on fashion, music as well as Britain's royal family.

Still ahead, who is the candidate for change? John Edwards says if you are looking at him, then you are looking at him. He is going to be joining us next to answer questions about those key issues. A lot of undecided voters. Still how will he convince them to vote for him here in New Hampshire? We're going to talk to them. Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, welcome back right now. We are here at the City side Grill in Concord, New Hampshire. Behind us, a lot of undecided voters. So, wondering which candidate they're ultimately going to cast their vote for in tomorrow's primary. John Edwards rode a wave of popular support. Finishing second in the Iowa caucuses. But can his message serve him as well in New Hampshire? Joining us now former Senator Edwards from Claremont, New Hampshire this morning, where he's continuing to do some campaigning up until, I'm sure the last possible second. And Senator Edwards, thanks for being with us.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning.

CHETRY: I'm sure you have made your way around and talked to a lot of different voters here in New Hampshire. One of the things that a few of the undecided voters here say will ultimately determine who they vote for is who has the best plan to help the economy, to make sure that jobs aren't leaving this state, and this country in general. Going forward, what is your plan to make sure that jobs stay here in the United States and that we remain competitive in the world market?

EDWARDS: Jobs are huge issue in New Hampshire. There is a potential of America losing 30 million more jobs over the next decade. And the people most at risks for those job losses are college graduates which hits New Hampshire particularly hard. These are things we need to do. We need to trade policy that actually looks out for American middle class workers and instead of bleeding American jobs. And no more trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA. We need to get rid of tax breaks for American companies that are sending jobs overseas. This is insane. It doesn't make any sense at all. The other thing we need to do is create new jobs. And probably one most critical component to that is as we drain the economy, get away from our carbon based, oil based economy, we can create a million new jobs and a lot of those new jobs can be located right here in New Hampshire where you and I are today.

CHETRY: So, make the argument if we let those President Bush tax cuts expire that it does hurt small businesses as well and small businesses would not be then as inclined to reinvest in their infrastructure. How do you make sure that by doing things like raising taxes in some ways and allowing some of the tax cuts to expire that we don't end up hurting small business?

EDWARDS: Because what you do is what I proposed is you give tax breaks to middle class families, tax breaks to small business, and you create a health care system that works for mall businesses and saves health care costs. All of these things make small businesses stronger and more viable. What has been happening in America is it is big corporate businesses and big multinational corporations that have entirely too much influence on the policy in this country.

And it is wise, these voters in New Hampshire are making decisions about what to do between now and tomorrow. And I heard you talking earlier about independent voters. You know, they have a very clear choice in this election between status quo and change. I'm a candidate who believes deeply in change and in the need for change. I've never taken any money from a Washington lobbyist or a special interest pack committed not to have any corporate lobbyists in my White House, to not have any lobbyists who have lobbied for foreign government. In my White House and to continue not taking money from these lobbyists. And this is opposed to a more status quo candidate like Senator Clinton who has taken more money from lobbyists, the pharmaceutical industry, the defense industry than any other candidate - Democrat or republican. So I think people have very clear choices in this election.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about Senator Clinton, since you brought her up. They criticized your campaign for invoking the name of Nataline Sarkisyan. For people who don't know who she is, she's a 17-year-old leukemia patient who died while waiting for her HMO to approve an organ transplant. Here is what you said yesterday regarding Clinton's campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARDS: The more I thought about it, the idea that somehow everything is about them. I mean, it's an indication they have no conscience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Can you clarify what you meant by no conscience?

EDWARDS: Yes. I would be happy to. Nataline Sarkisyan is a young 17-year-old girl who lost her life because the insurance company would not pay. She had insurance coverage, would not pay for her liver transplant operation. Which is outrageous. And the American people spoke up and marched outside their offices and I received a call from the family saying that they would love to come here and campaign with me and tell her story and support me. And then the Clinton campaign made some reference to me reading about people in the newspapers.

This is the whole problem. I mean, this election is about families like Nataline's family. Families who have lost their jobs, people that don't have health care. That's what this battle is about. And when I listen to what the Clinton...

CHETRY: let me ask you this before we let you go.

EDWARDS: When I listen to what the Clinton campaign said, if I can just finish. When I listen to what they say they think it is all about them. It is not about them. It is unconscionable for them to be talking about some young girl's family who's trying to tell her story in a way that's entirely political. This is their lives. This is real life. And that's true of everybody across New Hampshire who lost their jobs and who don't have health care. That's what is at stake in this election. Not us.

CHETRY: Senator, let me ask you this before we let you go. How would you as president make sure something like that didn't happen at somebody who was insured, ended up getting denied and being denied, what turned out to be potentially lifesaving medical care?

EDWARDS: First, we need universal health care so everyone has coverage. Second, we need a patient's bill of rights which I and John McCain and Senator Kennedy wrote in the United States Senate, the three of us. We got it passed through the United States Senate but President Bush killed it as he has much health care legislation. I will sign that law. The patients bill of rights into law when I'm president and then families like Nataline's will actually be able to make their day along with their doctors who make health care decisions, not insurance companies.

CHETRY: All right. Senator John Edwards, it's great talking to you. You are in Claremont, New Hampshire, this morning. And of course, continuing on the campaign trail. Good luck to you tomorrow and thanks for being with us.

EDWARDS: Thank you so much for having me.

CHETRY: Still ahead, we are going to continue to talk to more candidates and in fact, Congressman Ron Paul is going to be joining us, coming up in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING 8:40 a.m. Eastern time. John.

ROBERTS: From toys to PDAs. All of the hot new gadgets of the year. We are going to go inside the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, live from Las Vegas. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: All of the latest gadgets are on display in Las Vegas at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. Our Veronica de la Cruz is there. Veronica, there's so much interesting equipment there to see. What's the coolest thing that you've come across so far?

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: you are going to love this. This is the latest when it comes to flat-screen technology. Take a look at this. This is the Sony HDTV. It is an 11-inch model. This is the one that's available in stores now. It's going to run you about $2,500.

This is what's cool. Flat screens are getting even flatter. When it comes to the thickness of the screen, John, this is three credit cards in width. That's it. So, flat screens are getting flatter. And the technology is getting even better. The black is extremely sharp. So, this is a blackest black image and this is really the latest and greatest when it comes to HD technology. Sony is unveiling their 27-inch prototypes here at the CES. That isn't the only product we have seen so far. We were actually able to get a sneak peek at some of the other products that are being previewed. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is (shy-bot) from (inaudible). When a child gets him, he moves on his own. When you take him out of the box, you turn him on and he moves on his own.

DE LA CRUZ: All right. What does he do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Play games, we have games. There's an alarm clock. But mostly he's a robot that tells jokes.

ROBERT PEDERSEN, ZAGG: Here's a product called the invincible shield. It's hard to demonstrated because it is invisible. I'm going to show you just how strong it is. I don't worry about it getting scratched and chipped.

DE LA CRUZ: Wow. Can I do that? Do you trust me enough.

PEDERSEN: Absolutely.

DE LA CRUZ: All right. There you go.

PEDERSEN: Go ahead and scratch it if you can. See.

DE LA CRUZ: A lot of these products also provide a purpose, a practical purpose like this right here. From the Viable Inc., joining us now is Anthony Mowl who is going to tell us about this video phone. Anthony, what exactly does this video phone do?

ANTHONY MOWL, VIABLE, INC.: it is designed for and by deaf people. What it does is the ability for deaf people to connect with an interpreter 24/7 anywhere you go on the spot. Me as a deaf person, I meet several people every day on business trips traveling and I can't talk to anybody. But with this device on the spot I can talk to anybody I want.

DE LA CRUZ: So, that videophone obviously amazing technology. Something else that caught my attention - this massage chair. This is the human touch zero gravity acupressure detection massage chair. And I would say that this is probably going to be the most difficult part of my morning, John.

ROBERTS: How much is that little flat screen that you said is $2,500 for that little thing?

DE LA CRUZ: $2,500 right now but you know, when it comes to technology, prices drop as time goes on.

ROBERTS: Yes, and I can imagine..

DE LA CRUZ: And this is $4,000, just in case you're wondering.

ROBERTS: Right. All right. That looks good. I can imagine 3 or 4 years from now, you have a 60-inch flat screen, three credit cards and with it you're just basically stick up on your wall. That would be incredible.

DE LA CRUZ: Exactly.

ROBERTS: Veronica, have fun there. You look like you're having fun.

DE LA CRUZ: I am. Trust me.

CHETRY: That's the exact type of iPod I need by the way. You can scratch it, drop it, do a million things and it stay nice.

ROBERTS: Everybody needs that.

CHETRY: Some more than others. Meanwhile, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.

ROBERTS: Standing room only. Well, obviously, something happened there. Welcome back, here we are at the City side Grill in Concord, New Hampshire.

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