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Super Tuesday Showdown

Aired February 04, 2008 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay informed right here.
Here's what's on the rundown. Last-minute hunt for votes before the Super Tuesday showdown. The candidates live on the campaign trail all day.

The super sized budget out this hour, President Bush is calling for a record $3 trillion in spending.

The housing market cold. Wall Street, a little crazy. It's a turbulence and you're worried about retirement, relax. We talk with personal finance editor Gerri Willis today, Monday, February 4th, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Super Tuesday on the doorstep. Crucial contests taking place from coast to coast. Here's a look now at the map. Delegates up for grabs in 24 states. A flurry of activity for the candidates today. For John McCain, a chance to keep the momentum going and solidify his lead over Mitt Romney. Romney is making a final push in key stays like California. On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are running neck and neck in most states. They're both campaigning in the northeast today.

We have brand new polls this morning for both democrats and republicans. Let's start with the democrats. The new national CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Barack Obama with a three- point lead over Hillary Clinton. But that is well within the sampling error. Contrast that with our poll of polls, the average of five national polls shows Clinton with a two-point lead. On the republican side, new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll shows John McCain 44 percent to Mitt Romney's 29 percent. Mike Huckabee is in third with 18 percent. The republican John McCain with 45 percent, Mitt Romney, 24 percent, Mike Huckabee, 17 percent.

John McCain is starting his day on Mitt Romney's home turf holding a campaign rally in Boston, a strategy that some say could come back to bite him. CNN's Dana Bash is in Hamilton, New Jersey, for us. So how's it going, Dana? Could it come back to bite him?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We'll see. We will be able to answer that question in the wee, wee hours of tomorrow night. John McCain just wrapped up in Massachusetts. He said that he does think they have a pretty good shot at getting Massachusetts. Of course that is the state where Mitt Romney was governor a couple years ago. It speaks to the bigger strategy that John McCain has, which is to lock up the northeast. In New Jersey, he'll be here shortly. New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, these are areas that have a lot of delegates and have the winner take all status. So if John McCain can wrap up here he'll be doing pretty well.

In terms of the message, what he is trying to do in this final push is to give the sense of an unstoppable momentum. He's also trying to sort of talk about himself as if he is already the nominee, but still try to appeal to those critical conservatives who don't trust him very much. Listen to what he said in Massachusetts just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to tell you and look you in the eye, my friends, as president of the United States, I will preserve my proud conservative republican credentials but I will reach across the aisle to the democrats and work together for the good of this country. That's what you want us to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Reach across the aisle to democrats. That is John McCain trying to sort of make the case to republicans that, first of all, he is conservative. Second of all, that he believes he is the best republican right now to beat democrats and to be the kind of person who can get things done if he is the republican president. So it's an interesting strategy. You don't see him talking very much at all about Mitt Romney anymore. He's talking about the democrats, Heidi.

COLLINS: That's true. Him in the territory that he's in today, how is Mitt Romney handling this sort of in your face move, if you will?

BASH: He's not very happy about it, as you can imagine. Mitt Romney and his aides they insist the polling they see shows that John McCain is kind of barking up the wrong tree being in the state of Massachusetts. If he's trying to sort of get under Mitt Romney's skin, it might be working though because listen to what Mitt Romney said last night about McCain's strategy to be in his home state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know I don't know why he's campaigning in Massachusetts. There are 22 states going. You know, he can -- I guess he's spending like a day there. That's fine, too. I expect that I'm going to win in Massachusetts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He expects that he is going to win in Massachusetts. Taking it to the big picture, of course we have two dozen states or so that are voting. Mitt Romney is really crossing the country today while John McCain is staying here in the northeast. Mitt Romney is now in Nashville. He's going to California. He's coming back to the east coast. He's trying strategically to hit as many states as he possibly can really at a feverish pace. His message, Heidi, is he just said in Nashville, we don't want Senator McCain, we want a conservative. That is pretty strong from Mitt Romney. He is trying to get directly at that core weakness that he believes that John McCain has, which is the fact that there are a lot of conservatives out there really, as I said, do not trust Senator McCain. Mitt Romney is trying to present himself as alternative for those voters. Heidi?

COLLINS: We'll see if it works for him. All right. CNN's Dana Bash for this morning in Trenton, New Jersey. Thank you, Dana.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the democratic race. CNN's Jim Acosta is following Obama's campaign today. He's in East Rutherford, New Jersey, this morning. Tell us about Senator Obama's event there.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is shaping up a lot like last night's Super Bowl, in other words, a fight to the finish. Polls show the two are running neck and neck nationally and are poised to split many of the states that are up for grabs on Super Tuesday. Obama will be here in East Rutherford in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, in fact right behind Giants' Stadium where you can look just across the Hudson River and see Hillary Clinton's home turf of New York. Hillary Clinton will be campaigning in the northeast, shoring up her support in places like Connecticut and Massachusetts. Obama is taking aim at the issue of the Iraq war in these final hours before Super Tuesday saying only he can take on John McCain on the war because Hillary Clinton was an early supporter of the Iraq war in Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The president doesn't have the last word. We're going to keep at it. We're going to keep organizing until we bring this war to an end, because the Iraq war is not just a security problem, it is also a moral problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: As for Hillary Clinton, she is live right now campaigning at an event in New Haven, Connecticut, where she is talking about health care. She is making the case that only she can deliver universal health care to the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I see an America where everyone has quality-affordable health care, where every single person is part of a universal health care system. No exception, no excuses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And Hillary Clinton's health care plan is coming under some fresh scrutiny this morning after she told one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday that she would be willing to garnish the wages of some workers who can afford to buy health insurance but don't get to it help pay for her health care plan. As for Barack Obama, as we mentioned, he will be here in just a couple of hours where he may draw a crowd well over 10,000 people. He did that, in fact, yesterday and of all places, Wilmington, Delaware. Hillary Clinton, by the way, is going a different route to reach the masses. She is hosting a live, what you might call an infomercial tonight on the Hallmark Cable Network. Heidi?

COLLINS: Also want to talk a little bit about Senator Obama, the fact that he picked up another endorsement yesterday.

ACOSTA: That's right. Somebody you might refer to as Mrs. Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, one of the Kennedys, is out endorsing Barack Obama. She was at an event yesterday with Oprah Winfrey who is back on the campaign trail for Obama and Michelle Obama. This is Barack Obama's attempt to peel away some of the women voters that are so crucial in this campaign. When they go for Hillary Clinton, she seems to do well in these contests. When they go for Obama, or at least Obama is making a serious effort to get those women voters, he tends to do well. That is a definite critical voting block that all of us will be looking at tomorrow. Heidi?

COLLINS: Big, big day, that's for sure. From East Rutherford, New Jersey, Jim Acosta.

A special programming note. Senator Barack Obama will join Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" today at 4:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN. And today we'll be bringing you special coverage of the candidates as they crisscross the country ahead of Super Tuesday. Don't miss a full hour of the CNN's "Ballot Bowl" from noon to 1:00 eastern if you join us live coverage from the candidates as they make their pitches to the voters. Remember CNN equals politics.

One of the people making a pitch to the voters is Hillary Clinton. We see her now at a round-table event if you will, live from New Haven, Connecticut, this morning. We're keeping our eye on all of the candidates. We're going to listen in for just a moment.

CLINTON: I told them the other day when we were in Hartford that after he endorsed me a reporter said, well, did you date him? I said, I'm sorry, but they can ask me anything. The answer is --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have the right to remain silent.

CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you. So taking my lawyer's advice, I will move on and thank the state comptroller Nancy Wyman, who has done such a wonderful job here in Connecticut. I want to thank Mayor Malloy from Stanford, for being here, State Representative Juan Candaleria, my state co-chairs Susan Cocoa and Representative Jason Bartlett and Adam Wood, and I want to say a special word of appreciation to one of my heroes. You already heard two of their names mentioned.

When I came to work at the child study center as a law student, interested in how children developed, I was very privileged to work and observe Dr. Sally Province, one of the great ground breakers when it comes to how our children are developing and the kinds of stresses and problems that they face even at very, very young ages. And Dr. Al Solnet who, again, was an internationally famous advocate on behalf of children. I served as a research assistant for him. But in that amazing triumph, someone still very much with us, Dr. Jim Comber, whose work about the intersection of family and society and particularly institutions like schools has just been so informative and important and, you know, one thing that I know from my long friendship with Jim is that he has really set the standard for how we try to get institutions to take better care of our children and especially our schools. I'm very, very grateful that he's here and so happy to see him.

I want to recognize the dean of the medical school as well, who is here. Thank you so much. I actually did rounds at Yale New Haven with the staff. I was allegedly the expert on child abuse, and back in those days, 1971-72, child abuse was just being recognized as a problem. It was sort of a problem that nobody wanted to talk about. And the protocols for treating it and understanding it were just being developed. And I remember, you know, walking the floors with the doctors and residents and the interns, going into visit with the families of children who were there, having been burned or with broken bones, and trying to figure out how to tease out the information that would give some guidance as to how to treat both the child and the family. And that was pioneering work done right here at Yale New Haven.

So this is a very good feeling to be here. I thank all of you for coming to be with me this morning. And I really think back on those years as among the most important in my life for a lot of reasons. I -- when I arrived at Yale in 1969, I was thinking about that as I was driving in. I was in an old beat-up car with a mattress roped to the top and I knew at the very beginning that, you know, I was interested in trying to, you know, help change opportunities for people.

And that very first semester I saw a little sign on the bulletin board on the law school advertising a visit by a woman named Marian Wright Yedleman who had been a graduate at Yale Law School. I went to hear her speak. At that moment I was just captivated because she spoke about her work in Mississippi where she was the first African- American woman to pass the bar. She spoke about defending head start and championing its extension in Mississippi, how she had been part of Dr. King's poor people's campaign. And I went up to her afterwards and I said I really want to work for you. She said, well, that's fine but I don't have any money to pay you. I said, if I can figure out how to be paid, will you give me a job this summer? She said, of course. So I got a civil rights research council grant that I could then afford to do that over the summer instead of working to put myself through law school, which I had to do.

And so from that very beginning in the summer of 1970 working with Marian on a range of issues that, you know, involved kids incarcerated in adult jails and the impact on them to trying to prevent the Nixon administration from giving tax exempt status to segregated academies in the south. I just was fully immersed in the work of representing and defending kids, particularly poor kids, kids without a voice, kids of color.

So when I came back to the law school, I started to look at ways that I could be more involved in using the law on behalf of children. And that's how I found my way to the Yale Child Study Center. And how I found my way as a research assistant for Dr. Solnet and Jake Hats and Anna Fraud and their book "The Best Interest Of The Child" and the next "Beyond The Best Interest Of The Child" and I'm very appreciative to everyone, both past and present, here at the Yale child study center because we created a program, we made it up. We convinced the Yale Child Study Center and the Yale Law School that it was actually a good thing for lawsuit students to come over here and to spend time at the medical school and at the hospital.

So when I graduated, I went back to work for the children's hospital and the first job we had was to gather evidence to make the case for mainstreaming children with special needs into public schools; something that had never been done anywhere in the world. And we were trying to change that. So I went door to door in New Bedford, Massachusetts, because we had looked at census data about children ages six to 18 and then we had looked at school enrollment data, both public and private, and there was a big gap and nobody knew where those children were. So I would knock on the doors of small homes and modest apartments and ask if there was a school aged child that was not in school. I would usually be invited in and I would sometimes meet a blind child or a child in a wheelchair or a child who had some other kind of disability or difficulty. And so we presented that evidence and it was part of the case that was made for passing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was a see change. We were the first country to even attempt to do that.

So through the years working on behalf of services for the poor and working to reform education and health care in Arkansas and, you know, being on the front lines of, you know, trying to change laws, I wrote an article for the Harvard Educational Review that was published in 1973 about the rights of children, "Children Under The Law," it was called.

Some on the other side of the political aisle attempted to distort it and use it for purposes other than what it was intend end, which was to try to lay out the difficulties the law faces in supporting families and really embracing the family as the principle institution in our society to rear and care for children but recognizing that all too often families don't have the resources that they need to do that or families run into all kinds of difficulties that are not good for kids.

So working through that as, you know, as a private attorney and as a public advocate, has been really at the core of my sense of mission in public life, because for me, as I have said many times, you know, politics is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is intended in a democracy to give voice to all of us, everyone's vote counts exactly the same as anyone else's, to set priorities, to elect people who will fulfill those priorities, and to understand that decisions that are made have real-life consequences. It does matter who our leaders are and what they do. It has an impact on children's lives, on their parents' lives in ways large and small.

So obviously now running for president because I think and I know we can do better than we have, and I've invited some people here to talk with who have a variety of experiences. I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves as I call on them so they can say a little bit about who they are and what brings them here today. And we can start the conversation. I started this campaign with a conversation. I think that people in public life actually learn a lot when they listen instead of just talking because, for me, it's more about the work we do. You know, after the cameras are gone and the lights are turned off, I'm going to still be doing the same work that I did wearing my bell bottoms when I showed up at the legal services office or when I showed up here at the Yale Child Study Center, and I am looking for all of the good ideas in health that we can get to put together the kind of coalition we need to really deliver solutions for the problems that our children and their families face. So who wants to start?

COLLINS: All right. Here you have a snippet, if you will, of Senator Hillary Clinton's round-table discussion as she begins now to go around the table and meet some of the people participating in that New Haven, Connecticut. We're taking a look at all the candidates today. Throughout the day, this big Monday before an even bigger Super-duper Tuesday coming up tomorrow. We will be watching everybody today.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama has been gaining steam and endorsements, too. In fact not lost on the Clinton campaign. We will talk live with one of Hillary Clinton's campaign advisers in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We've been telling you this morning about new national polls. They show a virtual dead heat between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Now it may be all about momentum. Kiki Mclean is a senior adviser with Hillary Clinton's campaign. She is in Washington this morning. Good morning to you.

KIKI MCLEAN, SR. ADVISER, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: Thank you. Senator Clinton does hold a slim lead as we've been seeing in the polls we've been talking about this morning. But it's true, is it not, that Senator Obama sort of seems to have this momentum.

MCLEAN: I don't know about that.

COLLINS: You would argue that, I bet. But how concerned is the Clinton campaign with the result particularly of tomorrow?

MCLEAN: I think race is tight but the reality is in big states and places we care about Hillary Clinton is ahead. You know, the good news is, for everybody, that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have already made history. The question for voters tomorrow I think that are going to make the difference in what you see at the polls is who is really to make solutions to the table now. In this case, I have to say Hillary Clinton is the tested leader. She's ready to turn the economy around. She's ready to take on the republicans. She's beat them before. Most importantly, she's ready to be commander in chief. That's the question voters have to decide between now and tomorrow when they walk into their polling booths. COLLINS: You know why meant when I was talking about momentum. This weekend was a big weekend for Barack Obama.

MCLEAN: It was a big weekend for Hillary, too.

COLLINS: With the Kennedys and with Oprah as well.

MCLEAN: Yeah.

COLLINS: A lot of people are saying he's got all of these folks behind him.

MCLEAN: So does she. She's got Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend, Bobby Kennedy, Jr., Kerry Kennedy, out campaigning for her, op-ads in the paper, doing talk radio today and tomorrow on her behalf. And there are lots of people. We have Senator Murray from New York, We have Villaraigosa from Las Angeles. It goes on and on, Senator Mendez, Senator Vy, so the leadership in the communities are definitely there for Hillary Clinton. She's been getting thousands upon thousands at her rallies and crowds in town halls.

Heidi, I want to make sure all of your voters understand something, tonight she sets a new precedent with a live town hall meeting with 22 cities participating where regular voters get to talk to her, ask her questions. It will be simulcast on our website HillaryClinton.com and carried live on the Hallmark Channel. While some people have put money into all paid advertising, she's really put her money into making sure that voters can talk with her and ask her questions.

COLLINS: We were just looking at -- I'm not sure if you saw it, we were just looking at the live event that is taking place right now in New Haven, Connecticut, where she's doing that round-table today talking with voter there's.

MCLEAN: Sure.

COLLINS: I want to bring up the issue of Iraq war. As you know, Senator Obama brings up her voice on all of this. Let's listen to him from yesterday for just a minute.

MCLEAN: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If John McCain is the nominee, then the Democratic Party has to ask itself, do you want a candidate who has similar policies to John McCain on the war in Iraq or somebody who can offer a stark contrast? See, when I'm the nominee, John McCain won't be able to say that you were for this war in Iraq because I wasn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: How important is this discussion of the Iraq war vote?

MCLEAN: I think there are two things that are really important. Number one, John McCain knows that Hillary Clinton's national security credentials are top notch. He doesn't want to run against those. That's why Hillary Clinton has people like General Wesley Clark, the former secretary of the army, all sorts of national security leaders who support her because they believe she's the best person to be commander in chief and deal with these issues. The most important thing for voters to understand is John McCain says we'll leave the troops in for 50 or 100 years. Hillary Clinton says I'm getting the troops out, safely and responsibly, now.

COLLINS: Let me just ask you, when we move forward to looking at what happens after Super Tuesday. What happens if she doesn't do well tomorrow night?

MCLEAN: You know, I think this is going to be a long race. This is a competitive primary. And it's neck and neck in a lot of places and in a lot of places she's in the lead. I don't think that everything ends tomorrow night when polls close at 7:00. It's a democratic primary. We have more voices being heard. We have more voters coming in. It's a process, tomorrow and the days after. We move into places like Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana, on at the end of the month and beginning of March, Texas and Ohio. This is a process and that's okay because it's a fight for delegates and right now we're in good shape on delegates and we feel good about the kind of delegates we'll win tomorrow when people vote, when their voices are heard because those are the voices she's going to take to the white house with her.

COLLINS: Kiki Mclean, we appreciate your time with us this morning. From the Clinton campaign, senior adviser there, thanks so much.

MCLEAN: Thanks. Glad to be here.

COLLINS: Freaking out about your 401k? Our Gerri Willis has a prescription for Wall Street worries in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM, everybody 10:30 Eastern time now. Caught in the cross fire, thousands of people fleeing Chad's capital as fighting rages between rebels and the army. CNN's Barbara Starr is watching the situation from the Pentagon. Good morning to you, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Heidi. The Pentagon and the U.S. military has been keeping an eye on this central African country very closely since Saturday, when gunmen began to enter the capital. Violence breaking out across the capital city and throughout the country. Thousands of refugees on the move.

And for U.S. citizens and westerners in Chad, the State Department and U.S. military making it clear it is time to go, time to get out. Over the weekend, the U.S. embassy sustained gunfire. No one was hurt, but the embassy relocated to the airport under the protection of French military forces. And it is French military troops coordinating with the U.S. that are now evacuating westerners from this city. The French, as you see, are moving around capital, locating both French, Americans and other westerners, saying it's time to go. They are going to the airport where the French are in control, and leaving.

Of course, thousands of residents of Chad caught in the cross fire, streaming out, trying to get to safety. It is interesting, Heidi, that it is the French military really taking the lead here. They have had troops on the ground for many years, and the French are very capable in Africa with their combat forces.

So the U.S. military is sort of stepping back, letting them take the lead in helping get the westerners out. But a good deal of concern about this country. The rebels are continuing with their violence, and there is a wide belief that those rebels, those insurgents, are coming in from Sudan and Darfur to the east, which, of course, is its very serious escalation of what has been going on there.

All of this, Heidi, coming just two weeks or so before President Bush is scheduled to travel to Africa. Heidi?

COLLINS: That's right. CNN's Barbara Starr watching the situation for us from the Pentagon this morning. Thank you, Barbara.

New this morning in the Middle East now. A deadly suicide bombing in Israel. The first in more than a year. A suicide bomber blew himself up at a shopping mall in southern Israel killing one person and wounding 11 others. Authorities say Israeli police shot and killed a second attacker before he could set off his explosives.

Hours later an Israeli air strike in Gaza. Israel says it targeted a senior Palestinian militant responsible for rocket fire towards Israel, and for helping bring down the wall between Gaza and Egypt.

It has been a rough ride for investors this year. You may be thinking of putting the brakes on the your 401(k) contributions, but our Gerri Willis has better ways to protect your retirement. Good morning to you. Give us a little more.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COLLINS: Closing in on retirement? Finding your options closed off? A change in the economy means a change in plans. Thelma Gutierrez reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Karl and Minnie Stokes (PH) dreamed of their golden years. Rae Wayne hoped to retire in her 40s. And 59-year-old Mark Salkin planned to leave his job and live off his real estate investment. But now, all three are having a serious case of retirement jitters, with the economy going south. NANCY LEAMOND, AARP: Our members said that it made them stop and think about exactly when they would retire and whether they could afford to retire. People are very, very nervous.

MARK SALKIN, NEARING RETIREMENT: It's beginning to look like I'm going to have to continue working longer than I expected to.

GUTIERREZ: Salkin says that's because his investment properties aren't worth what they used to be. And with the housing market gone limp, it's not a good time to sell.

SALKIN: We had planned that our retirement would be funded through the equity in the properties we have built over the years. That now begins to look a little less certain.

GUTIERREZ: Real Rae Wayne is only in her 40s, but she was hoping careful financial planning and a sizable portfolio would mean that she could quit her job. Now, she's having second thoughts because of the volatile stock market.

RAE WAYNE, REALTOR: My portfolio has gone down 8 percent. Certainly that's a big chunk when you realize it happened only in a couple of weeks.

GUTIERREZ: Financial Adviser, Paul Weiner says it's critical investors reduce their stock holdings for less risky investments, like bonds the closer they get to retirement.

PAUL WEINER, INVESTMENT ADVISER: When you think about it, a $2 million portfolio that drops 4 percent, that's going to be an $80,000 hit. Not a lot of percentages, but that's a lot of money.

GUTIERREZ: Minnie and Karl Stokes don't have fancy investment. She was a teacher, he was a carpenter. But they always thought of a pension and Social Security would be enough.

KARL STOKES, RETIREE: I'm now more concerned about it more than ever.

GUTIERREZ: At 68, Karl continues to work to supplement their income.

K. STOKES: If I was retired, I never thought I would pay $46 or $47 less a week for gas. That never came in my consciousness.

M. STOKES: I always feel that seniors don't get enough breaks. I pay taxes on that little retirement check that I get. I don't think I should have to do that.

GUTIERREZ: The Stokes own their own home and don't live above their means, and they say they're making the most out of their down- sized retirement, a position more Americans may find themselves in. Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Glendale, California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Thousands and thousands of Chinese people are trying to get home for the lunar new year holiday. The crush putting a huge strain on crowd control.

CNN's Hugh Riminton reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The crowds are still coming. Hundreds of thousands, pressing in waves at Guangzhou Train Station. All in a race against people and time to make it home for the lunar new year festival, China's most essential holiday.

But if the crowds are here still, so, too, now is the crowd control. With the death of a young woman from injuries suffered here Friday in what is officially been described as a stampede, the authorities are leaving nothing to chance.

Three-hundred and six-thousand soldiers have been deployed in Southern China. That's nearly twice as many troops as the U.S. has in Iraq. The real front line, though, is being held by police, 12,000 of them, at the train station alone. This officer who won't give his name says he's been manning the barricades for five days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have to keep things in order to stop people from being trampled. Things are much more in order today.

RIMINTON: But he says he's tired. This is what he's confronted every hour of every shift. Nearly half-a-million people have now made it on to trains through this station, but at a price, dignity and comfort.

(on camera): The weather is certainly helping. This is the first blue sky day we've seen here in more than that week. But the police presence can't be underestimated. This almost strangulation level of control seems to be diffusing the tension among these frustrated travelers.

(voice-over): There are still outbreaks of anger, but not the general sense of frustrated rage of three or four days ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think it's fine today. I thought it would be really crowded, but it has turned out to be OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): There are so many police and also a lot of soldiers. I think they've done a great job.

RIMINTON: The key date is Wednesday, the new year's eve, the most important day for families to be together. Soon, anyone who's going to make it this year will have already have had to have gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: CNN's Hugh Riminton reporting.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

COLLINS: Hey, speaking of weddings, only in Minnesota. Look at this, a wedding on a frozen lake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will stand by you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will stand by you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope they fish for the rest of their lives until they're like 90. But a good deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the catch of my life right here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Who had cold feet? Find out in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: His greatest catch ever, ice fisherman went to the lake and came back with a wife. Sound fishy? Reporter Jeffrey DeMars, of affiliate KARE, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY DEMARS, KARE REPORTER: On Lake Jane just north of St. Paul --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're out here fishing, we're already up to a big one pounder today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come here, buddy.

DEMARS: The fish are biting and the talk of the lake Saturday is what may be Sean Bibeau's greatest catch.

JESS BIBEAU, GROOM'S BROTHER: He's been out fishing darn near 90 percent of his life.

DEMARS: Older brother Jess says most of their fishing has been on this lake, which is why it makes perfect sense Sean would get hitched here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get a good hook, strong pull.

DEMARS: Hook, line and sinker. The couple are surrounded by friends and family that share the same joy of spending an afternoon ice fishing.

TOM BIBEAU, GROOM'S FATHER: This is great, being we come from hunting fishing families, both sides, so --

DEMARS: Dressed in car harts and camouflage ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all have our fishy ties on.

DEMARS: ... along with the appropriate neck wear, Sean and Cassandra are also geared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're pretty warm. I got nice big wool socks on.

DEMARS: To prevent any chance they may get cold feet and surrounded by ice houses and ice holds with tip-ups, the couple exchanged their vows.

SEAN BIBEAU, GROOM: I will stand by you.

CASSSANDRA BIBEAU, BRIDE: I will stand by you.

DEMARS: It's a wedding that had the entire lake talking.

CHRIS MAUER, FRIEND OF BRIDE AND GROOM: I talked to my brother Mark and I went to get some bait and he said get a bottle of champagne. And I thought it was Sunday so I thought the liquor stores were closed. So then I didn't get him one. But --

DEMARS: Any wishes?

MAUER: I hope they fish for the rest of their life, until they're like 90. Caught a good deal.

S. BIBEAU: This is the catch of my life right here.

DEMARS: It's a fishtail that will likely be told for years to come.

Jeffrey DeMars, KARE 11 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And by the way, it was bride's idea to have the wedding on ice. She thought the groom would be less likely to forget the date. Good idea.

A lady busted for a brown yard. Police say it's her fault.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's just trying to cover his tracks, as far as I'm concerned. He really abused me. Brutally abused me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The lawn police, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A new twist in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. A controversial taped confession now leading prosecutors to reopen the case. CNN's Fredrick Pleitgen has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aruba's chief prosecutor had closed the case on the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Joran van der Sloot was once a suspect but never charged. Now a Dutch crime reporter appears to have caught van der Sloot on tape claiming the 18- year-old high school student died suddenly while they were making out on a beach in Aruba.

"All of a sudden what she did was like in a movie. She was shaking. It was awful," he says. "... I prodded her. There was nothing."

Van deer Sloot describes calling a friend he says was never questioned by police who had a boat nearby. Van der Sloot says that they carried Natalee Holloway's body to the boat.

"He went out to the sea and then he threw her out like a rag," he said.

Van der Sloot is heard on the tape saying neither he nor his friend were certain not Natalee Holloway was dead. But he seems to say it didn't bother him.

"I felt fine. I didn't lose a minute of sleep over it," he says.

The recordings of van der Sloot talking to another man were made in the car outfitted with hidden cameras by Dutch journalist, Peter Defreeze (ph). We searched for Joran van der Sloot in his hometown of Arnhem, in the Netherlands, but he was nowhere to be found.

(on-camera): This is where van der Sloot's grandparents live and press reports said that he had been staying here. But we just talked to his grandfather. And he says that Joran is not here and he doesn't know where he is.

(voice-over): But a Dutch TV program was able to track him down here on Friday. His confessions, he said on the phone, were lies. That is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear, he said. Investigators in Aruba say now they are reopening their investigation into the case of Natalee Holloway.

Fredrick Pleitgen, CNN, Hilversum, the Netherlands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Super Tuesday scramble, almost half the states vote. The candidates live from the trail all day right here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: You're with CNN. You're informed. Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.

Developments keep coming into the CNN NEWSROOM on Monday, the 4th day of February. Here's what's on the rundown. Candidates making a final push for Super Tuesday voters.

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