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American Morning

Hezbollah Leader Killed; Potomac Primary Results; Steroids in Baseball

Aired February 13, 2008 - 08:00   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Obama won by decisive margins in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., picking up an estimated 70 delegates giving him the overall lead over Senator Clinton 1,215 to 1,190.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't keep spending money that we don't have in a war that shouldn't have been fought. We can't keep mortgaging our children's future on a mountain of debt. We can't keep driving a wider and wider gap between the few who are rich and the rest who are struggling to keep pace. It is time to turn the page and write a new chapter in American history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Senator Hillary Clinton is making changes. Her deputy campaign manager Mike Henry resigned. Senator Clinton was in Texas last night hoping that Latino voters can help her win in that state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks, bringing our message about what we need in America, the kind of president that will be required on day one to be commander in chief, to turn the economy around. I'm tested, I'm ready! Let's make it happen!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: It was only a week ago, but Hillary Clinton has not won a contest since Super Tuesday going 0-8 in the last few -- Kiran?

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Check out the big board here. It was also a sweep on the Republican side for John McCain. He picked up 89 delegates last night; 60 in Virginia, 13 in Maryland, 16 in the District of Columbia and it puts the total delegate count now at 812 -- 1,191 needed to clinch the GOP nomination and Mike Huckabee stays at 217. Ron Paul with 16. Also, Mitt Romney's suspended campaign is holding on to 286 delegates at this point, and McCain also took a swipe at Barack Obama during his victory speech last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need. I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Meanwhile, though, Mike Huckabee says the race not over until someone crosses the 1,191 delegate finish line and he told supporters he's still got a shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's still a real sense in the republican party of a desire to have a choice, a desire to make sure that the voters who want a solid conservative absolutely pro-life candidate still exists, and I think that's what the results in Virginia clearly indicate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: It was quite close in Virginia between the two. John McCain says he still has the momentum going forward to grab the GOP nomination. John?

ROBERTS: Other stories new this morning, just hours ago we learned that one of America's most wanted terrorists was killed in an explosion. Imad Mughniyeh was a top military commander in Hezbollah. He was killed in Syria. The FBI says he was wanted for the hijacking of a TWA flight in June of 1985 where a navy diver was shot and killed. He was also suspected in the 1983 U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut.

We're hearing what former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte told congress about his friend Roger Clemens and human growth hormone. Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee will be the start witnesses today at the congressional hearing on drug use in baseball. McNamee says he injected Clemens with steroids and HGH numerous times. Clemens has repeatedly denied those accusations. Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that Andy Pettitte's affidavit of sworn testimony says Clemens told him ten years ago that he used HGH back when it was not banned by baseball.

For the first time in three months, Leno, Conan and Jimmy will get their writers back. The Writers' Guild of America voted overnight to end their walk out. They still have to sign off on the contract paying them for work distributed over the Internet. Jay Leno's writers come back in time for tomorrow night's show. John Stewart gets his writers back, too, for the "Daily Show" and for the Oscars. Your favorite shows could be back by April or May, prime time shows. Comedies first, like "The Office" and "Two And A Half Men" and then dramas like "House," "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy." But looking like "24" not going to come back until next year.

And Uno is numero uno this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are absolutely superb, beautiful lineup. Thank you very much. May I have the beagle?

ROBERTS: Reno (ph) the beagle won last night in the Westminster dog show last night. The first beagle to ever take the top prize, the first hound since 1939. It was a huge night last night. Uno was a huge crowd favorite. He got a standing ovation inside Madison Square Garden, beat out thousands of other dogs, including Loca, who was here with us on Monday.

We wanted to update you on how Loca did. A Tibetan mastiff, won an award of merit for exceptional dogs in her class.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: However, Uno is --

ROBERTS: Beautiful dog.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Uno is so happy, howling. You could see him howling right in the winner's circle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Uno is just the perfect beagle. Even the brown spot in his back looked like a saddle, just the way it's supposed to. I wonder if we'll hear from snoopy on that one?

Back to our top story now. The Potomac sweep for John McCain and Barack Obama. Let's bring in senior political correspondent Candy Crowley and she joins us from Madison, Wisconsin. Quite a night for Barack Obama.

We talk, Candy, about this idea of momentum and whether or not it exists what it means. Can we say after going 8-0 that Barack Obama does indeed have momentum?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually next week after Wisconsin and Hawaii. Look you know, we knew coming out of Iowa it looked like he momentum. She stumped him in New Hampshire, went to a draw in Super Tuesday. So this is the first real streak of wins that anybody in this race has had. So it certainly looks like traditional momentum, but this has been a less than traditional race.

So, yes. They feel in the Barack Obama campaign that things are building up. They don't quite call the domino theory. They just believe she rolling at this point. They are hoping to do well here in Wisconsin. He is here all week for that primary next Tuesday. She's going to come in on the weekend, as you saw. Of course, went to Texas, where the Clinton campaign is putting a lot of their hope, John.

ROBERTS: Candy, she's paying a lot of attention to Texas. Let's listen to what she said last night about that state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H. CLINTON: We're going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks, bringing our message about what we need in America, the kind of president that will be required on day one to be commander in chief to turn the economy around. I'm tested. I'm ready. Let's make it happen!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Candy, like Rudy Giuliani used Florida as his firewall, she's hoping Texas will be the same for her. A little different situation. Rudy Giuliani hadn't won any contests going in, but is Texas looking solid for her or could these wins by Obama start to affect the vote there?

CROWLEY: Absolutely. The vote is always affected by what people see. Voters not only want to vote for someone who is in sync with them on the issues, most democratic voters look at these two candidates and think I can take either one. They are in sync with me on the issues. So momentum does count. People want to vote for a winner.

That doesn't say that the lay of the land isn't pretty good for her in Texas, because it is. There's the Latino vote there. There are some traditional Democrats. They are sort of the mainstream Democrats, lunch box Democrats, as we call them, who, in fact, have been the base of her support, at least before last night in Virginia.

Same thing in Ohio. They believe that the old industrial areas with all of those working-class voters really will trend in her favor, but there isn't any doubt that if you have won this many in a row, people are sitting up and taking notice, and it can change votes. Because we see also in some of these polls that there were a huge number of undecideds going into the voting booth. This makes a difference.

ROBERTS: Interesting to note too there in Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton had the lead right up until the last set of polls and suddenly Barack Obama spiking a little so maybe next Tuesday in jeopardy for her as well. Candy Crowley for us this morning in the capital of Madison. Candy, thanks --Kiran?

CHETRY: This just in. President Bush will be making a statement at 8:50 this morning so in about 40 minutes regarding the Senate's passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known at FISA. The senators passed that bill yesterday by a vote of 68 to 29 and it includes a controversial provision that would provide for retroactive immunity with any telecommunications company that helped the intelligence committee eavesdrop on suspected terrorists after 9/11. Again, we're going to hear from the president making a statement about that 8:50 from the Oval Office and we're carry it live here for you on CNN.

At one time or another we've all had a pain in the neck. I'm not talking about people in our lives but real pain in our necks and backs. It seems Americans are spending tons of money to ease the pain, but it may be money wasted. Chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta is at our medical update desk, pain in our necks.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: She looked at John there.

ROBERTS: She at least thought about it. I don't know if she actually looked at me, but she thought about it.

CHETRY: Help, Sanjay. What's going on?

GUPTA: You know we do spend a lot of money spent on spine study trying to figure how much do we spend and is it worth it? That's the question they were trying to answer. A couple important things. We spend about $80 billion a year on spine pain; neck pain, back pain. That's almost about the same amount of money on treating cancer. The difference is, oftentimes with regard to spine pain it doesn't make a big difference if we're spending all that money.

Let me point out a couple things. First of all, when it comes to the spine, the neck is often a source of pain, as you mentioned, Kiran, with regard to John, 14 percent of the time. The lower back here actually is where the pain occurs most of the time. That's where a lot of the sort of the motion in our spine is concentrated in that lower back part. That's what oftentimes drives a lot of people to go see the doctor.

Oftentimes they're going to ask for pain pills, ask for imaging studies. We now know 80 percent to 85 percent of the time this pain goes away on its own within a couple, three weeks, going to the doctor, getting a narcotic pill or getting an MRI doesn't seem to speed up the recovery.

CHETRY: Interesting thing and John and I were talking about it as well. Personal trainers and perhaps some other doctors saying that it's a good idea to strengthen your core, that if you're abdominal muscles are strong it actually helps prevent back pain? Any truth to that?

GUPTA: Yes, there is. Talk about short term, you talk about long-term solutions. When it comes to short-term solutions, a lot of the things we talking about, again, simply don't work. I mean taking narcotic pills to make the pain go away, that's for a short time. In the long term, you really do need to think about losing weight and the strengthening the big muscles that run up and down along the spine. If you strengthen those muscles you're more likely to tolerate the wear and tear of daily life. That's going to be your best bet in the long term, Kiran.

CHETRY: A lot of people also swear about chiropractic care.

GUPTA: Look, in full disclosure, as you know I'm a neurosurgeon so I work at the opposite end of the spectrum compared to chiropractors. Again, chiropractors can provide a lot of relief. I have friends that who use them all the time and find a lot of relief in the short term. There have been randomized trials looking at chiropractors going to a primary care doctor versus simply taking anti-inflammatory medication.

Not a huge difference. Simply taking an anti-inflammatory may be just as effective. Something that's lingering, continuing for a long period of time or starting to develop numbness, weakness, something like that, then it's time to get it checked out and maybe even have something done about it.

CHETRY: I know people are going to write in about this. What about acupuncture?

GUPTA: Funny. Again, full disclosure, my wife had spine pain and used acupuncture and had a great result from it. If you're having a true problem, you have a pinched nerve for some reason, I think acupuncture, chiropractic manipulation, all probably not going to be a benefit. If you're just having simple muscle pain from a muscle tear or pull, those things might be effective.

CHETRY: Very interesting because I know a lot of people that suffer from back and neck pain. They are looking for answers here. Dr. Gupta, great to see you. As always, thanks Sanjay.

GUPTA: All right. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton is already campaigning in south Texas. She is launching new ads to appeal to Hispanics who say Barack Obama may not be their guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a mistrust. Wait a minute. There is no track record. There is nothing there that shows what they have done for us

ROBERTS: A look at the influential Latino vote coming up. Plus, caught on tape, a police officer and skateboarding teen. Do the pictures tell the whole story? Our legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins us with that. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H. CLINTON: We're going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks, bringing our message about what we need in America, the kind of president that will be required on day one to be commander in chief to turn the economy around. I'm tested. I'm ready. Let's make it happen!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: A lot of confidence from Senator Hillary Clinton last night in Texas after her Potomac primary loss to Barack Obama. For the first time, he made inroads into her base winning over more women. Some say he faces a challenge for the Latino vote. AMERICAN MORNING's Ed Lavandera shows us why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

H. CLINTON: I am proud to be part of the El Paso, Texas, family starting right now. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: El Paso, Texas, Tuesday night, reminding the Latinos she used to walk the border town more than 30 years ago registering voters. The Clinton campaign hopes that kind of personal connection will go a long way with voters here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We believe in her. We believe in what she stands for, and I think she will be good for Hispanics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's going to be helping our border issues here in El Paso we're extremely excited.

LAVANDERA: Barack Obama doesn't have that history with Latino voters in Texas. Even his own campaign acknowledges, the Illinois senator has a lot of work to do. Rafael Anchia is a state representative from Dallas, helping introduce Obama to Texas Hispanics.

RAFEL ANCHIA (D), TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: What we've seen in other states, ten points behind when people see him on the ground when people see his commercials, hear him speak, it closes the gap immediately.

LAVANDERA: The Obama campaign says it is starting to do better among Latino voters, pointing to Tuesday's victory in Virginia saying they actually beat Hillary Clinton among Latino voters, but in Texas, it's different. Here the Clintons have a much longer, deeper relationship with the Hispanic community.

Jesse Diaz is the head of the League of United Latin-American Citizens in Dallas and claims many Texas Hispanics don't trust black political leaders, because they're simply not familiar with them.

JESSE DIAZ, LEAGUE OF LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS: There's a mistrust. Hispanics say, no track record, nothing that show what's they have done for us, so how can we trust them that they're going to do it for us?

LAVANDERA: But Obama supporters point out their candidate is the son of am immigrant. When Texas hears about his plans for immigration reform, he'll win over Latinos.

ANCHIA: If we get stuck in the frame of Latino versus black, an old frame, historical frame, we will miss the opportunity to bring communities together under the Obama banner and presidency in the future.

LAVANDERA: But it's for the immediate future, a state that's 35 percent Hispanic is poised for a big political fight in the weeks ahead.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, El Paso, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: In Virginia, Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Latino vote by eight points, but he lost by ten points in Maryland. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama go head to head once again right here on CNN. A debate set for next Thursday, February 21st at the LBJ Auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin. Watch it live on CNN at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

CHETRY: Still ahead, a Baltimore police officer suspended after he gets physical with a 14-year-old skateboarder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously your parents don't put a put it a foot in your butt quite enough, because you don't understand the meaning of respect.

CHETRY: The whole thing caught on tape. Our legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins us with the story ahead.

Also, the Marines can stay in Berkeley. Just hours ago, the city voting to take back their scathing vote against them. The story, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don't sweep them under the rug. Sow so them into the fabric.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Using polyester, an opportunity to use an alternative to an oil-based product.

O'BRIEN: Mohawk uses 14,000 plastic drink bottles every minute. One-third of all recycled bottles in the U.S., to make Everstrand Carpet. Mohawk buys the old bottles by the bail, broken up, sorted by color then shipped, cleaned, melted, molded into trash and spun into yarn.

JENNY CROSS, MOHAWK: And it becomes the basis of your carpet. This is what you walk on. It doesn't look or feel anything like a plastic now.

O'BRIEN: Plastic bottles are a huge environmental problem. Bottles used for water alone consume 47 million gallons of oil and generate 1.5 million tons of waste, but the bottles are high-quality plastics that make great carpet at the same cost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think we're getting the best of both worlds, which is environmental solution and an economic solution to the issue of the waste issue.

O'BRIEN: But Americans only recycle about one in four of the plastic bottles they use. Sadly, our landfills are carpeted with the solution that is going to waste.

Miles O'Brien, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. A Baltimore police officer is off the streets suspended after getting physical with a teen skateboarder, all caught on tape. At one point he puts the 14- year-old in a headlock, knocks him to the ground and continues a verbal attack.

Joining me now to take a look at this is AMERICAN MORNING's legal analyst Sunny Hostin. This was involving a police officer and this 14-year-old apparently he wasn't supposed to be.

Let's listen to a little more of what this police officer said to the boy.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OFFICER RIVIERAI: First of all, you better learn how to speak. I'm not "man." I'm not "dude." I am Officer Rivierai. The sooner you learn that, the sooner you're going to live in this world. You go around doing that kind of stuff, somebody's going to kill you!

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CHETRY: Is that a threat?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It certainly is a threat. Not only is that a threat, I think that the very important thick here, if you look at it, the excessive force. It is clearly the use of excessive force, and I would say also an assault. What's interesting about, at least an assault, not only it's a crime. What this officer is now facing not only civil liability, he's facing administrative liability. He's been suspended.

I think he may lose his job and facing criminal liability. You look at the definition of excessive force and things said to jurors. Juror, typically told, bottom line, it's what a reasonable officer would have done. And when you look at that tape and you hear that sound, I think there's no question that a reasonable officer wouldn't have put this kid, a 14-year-old in a bear hug, throw him down to the ground and rip his skateboard away.

The kid was never arrested. So he's facing, certainly, a lot, a lot of trouble, and what I used to tell defendants for the short time I was a defense attorney. I was largely a prosecutor. I would always say you want any interaction you have with a police officer to last a very short amount of time. So if you get stopped, traffic stop, anything like that, a short amount of time. This kid did nothing wrong.

CHETRY: I don't understand what was happening before, because we have three minute 30 second snippet. Within that 3 minute 30 seconds, you only heard the kid say one time I don't know what I did wrong.

HOSTIN: Exactly.

CHETRY: The officer was clearly agitated, but kept coming back over and over again. Kept on coming back. The kid didn't say a word.

HOSTIN: Well what's interesting, if you listen to the video, of course, I've listened to the entire tape and video. One of the kids is saying to his friend, dude, don't say anything. That is the advice, but all the kid did say, I couldn't hear you. I had my ear plugs in. Apparently he was listening to an iPod, something like that. The officer just really went off. That is something we cannot have our officers do. It has to be reasonable, prudent and this officer did not act reasonably in this situation.

CHETRY: Any likely criminal charges against the officer or civil charges?

HOSTIN: I think both. I think both. Again, I think he may be looking at an assault charge. There certainly is excessive force here. There's civil liability, criminal liability. The officer did everything wrong in this kind of thing, and let me say, I mean, I've worm worked with police officers a long time. Officers don't usually do this kind of thing. This is a rarity.

CHETRY: All right. Sunny, thanks so much -- John.

ROBERTS: We are hearing from former Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte about Roger Clemens use of human growth hormones. The Associated Press is reporting details from Pettitte's sworn testimony before Congress last week. He says Clemens talked about using HGH ten years ago. Clemens and his former personal trainer Brian McNamee testified of this morning on Capitol Hill.

McNamee claims he injected Clemens at least 16 times with both HGH and steroids. Clemens vehemently denies those accusations. Which bring us to this morning's Quick Vote question. Who do you think telling the truth? Right now 18 percent say Roger Clemens. 82 percent say Brian McNamee. Cast your vote at CNN.com/am. We'll tally them throughout the morning.

You're watching the most news in the morning. Riding a wave. Whether it's too late to stop Barack Obama from taking Texas. Hillary Clinton hopes not. John King on the road ahead next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, there's a picture of snowy Pittsburgh this morning. This was going to be a picture of sunny Miami, but we thought that would cause too much pain for all these folks in the Northeast who are dealing with the terrible -- it's not terrible weather, though is it? It's February.

CHETRY: Thank you. Yes. If you got stuck on some of the roadways yesterday it was pretty terrible.

ROBERTS: But it's winter, it snows.

CHETRY: That's right.

ROBERTS: Twenty-nine degrees there in Pittsburgh today, going up to a high of only 31 and they're expecting more snow today.

Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: They're ready for it in Pittsburgh. It's the people in the D.C. metropolitan area --

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: I know --

ROBERTS: So you get a little bit of snow.

CHETRY: That's right. You get a little bit of snow and --

ROBERTS: Won't have to deal with this.

CHETRY: And the cars pile up and the roadways and things shut down. It's actually, keep -- I think it was the Maryland primaries yesterday. They left the polls open an extra hour and a half because that bad weather, people had a lot of trouble getting there. In the end, though, it turned out to be a big sweep for Barack Obama. He won the Maryland primary, as well as the Virginia primary, and the D.C. Primary last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There it is. Obama capturing all three. But how long can his momentum last, especially going into the key states of Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania? Here to talk with us today about that, Susan Rice, a senior adviser for the Obama campaign. She joins us from our Washington bureau this morning.

Congratulations, Susan, by the way, on the big win last night.

SUSAN RICE, OBAMA CAMPAIGN SR. ADVISER: Thank you very much, Kiran. It was a great night, large margins in very important states. And obviously that is a streak of eight wins over the last week or so. So, we feel good going into Wisconsin, which is the next big state coming up. And then on -- on March 4th, to Ohio and Texas and elsewhere.

CHETRY: Those are delegate-rich states where, at least according to many of the estimates, Hillary Clinton is expected to do well and do strong there. What is the strategy to continue the momentum for Barack Obama?

RICE: Well, obviously, Hillary Clinton remains in significant lead in Ohio and Texas. In both those contests, Barack Obama comes in as the underdog. But he will focus on the message that matters most to the people in those states, which is, of course, the economy. He's giving a major economic speech today, talking about the necessity of mortgage relief for people who risk losing their homes, tax relief for working families, education benefits for people who aim to go to college, but may not be able to afford it without a $4,000 tuition credit every year in exchange for national service, health care for every American. So he'll be focusing on the economic issues that are of primary concern to all Americans at this point.

CHETRY: It was interesting, "The New York Times" analysis had this to say about Barack Obama's victory speech last night say, "Obama acted almost as if the primaries were behind him. It amounted to a preview of an Obama/McCain race might be like and it reduced Mrs. Clinton, at least for one night, to the roll of bystander." Is he looking past the primaries, and if so, is that a little bit premature?

RICE: We're not looking past the primaries. We're going to compete intensively in Wisconsin, of course, in Hawaii and then in all the states or March 4th. We take nothing for granted. Barack Obama has been the insurgent candidate in this campaign. We remain up against a very established and well-regarded Clinton team that has dominated Democratic politics for almost two decades now.

So, Barack Obama will be campaigning hard in all of these states, taking nothing for granted, and talking about his plans to address the very serious economic concerns that Americans are focused on now. And he'll be focused on the issues that matter most, the economy, health care, education, ending the war in Iraq.

CHETRY: Some of the best places to get those views out and to let people know where the candidates stand on issues or debates so far you guys have agreed to two. Hillary Clinton saying four. Why not agree to the two other debates that have possibly been talked about?

RICE: Well, two debates over the next three weeks is quite a number. Barack Obama is eager to see Senator Clinton again in those debates, but his schedule is not going to be dictated by the Clinton campaign. He's going to spend his time talking to voters in Ohio and Wisconsin and in Texas and elsewhere, and I think the voters having seen these candidates in 18 debates already will be quite satisfied with two more before March 4th.

CHETRY: Of course the best one will be the CNN debate taking place in Austin, Texas, next week. We'll be watching for that.

Susan Rice thanks so much for joining us.

RICE: Thank you.

CHETRY: John --

ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton may be taking a page out of Rudy Giuliani's book, banking on Texas as Barack Obama marched through the mid-Atlantic. Here with a look at the road ahead is our chief national correspondent, John King.

Lets take a look at what happened in this so-called Potomac or Chesapeake primary, and how that might inform how things are going to shape up going forward.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, lets bring up the state of Virginia. Senator Clinton is the lighter blue, Senator Obama is the darker blue. And, I don't need to say anything. You just look at the map. He won the state very big. She won down here in the rural southwestern Virginia. Not many people live here. She did -- this is a congressional district, roughly outlined about here, so that will help her pull some delegates away from that.

But John, he won in African-American Richmond. He won down here in the military areas along Virginia Beach and Norfolk. He won big in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. And he cut into her coalition, he won among white men. That could be significant as we move forward. And why don't we pull the map down actually --

ROBERTS: He narrowed the gap among white women, too.

KING: He narrowed the gap among white women and did better among Latinos as well. And so how could that matter? One of the places we're going to -- first is Wisconsin. But he's heavily favored there. So then we're going to skip ahead to three weeks from now when Hillary Clinton says Ohio and Texas are must-win states.

These are -- this is an interesting place. There is an African- American population up here in Cleveland, to a smaller degree, in Toledo and Columbus. But you have the blue-collar areas of the state where she's done well the lower -- sort of blue-collar lunch bucket Democrats. The white vote will be critical down here in the Cincinnati area. So we'll see if Obama can carry the gains over from the Virginia area into Ohio.

And let's come back down, of course, and this one here is the must-Senator Clinton was there last night. She understands this is huge for her. Remember, she was once the first lady of Arkansas and, again, very interesting demographics.

Will Barack Obama continue to win among white Democrats? Well, we'll see that up in this area here, the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Some African-Americans, but also a lot of white Democrats here. If he can keep running the margins he ran in northern Virginia in the Dallas/Ft. Worth suburbs -- Austin he's heavily favored. That's where you have more liberals. But in the San Antonio area, the Latino vote comes into play -- African-Americans.

This a fascinating state demographically all the way over to the border, here. So, if he can carry over what he did last night in demographics, it makes Ohio and Texas much more competitive. She's been leading in the polls. But we'll see the impact, if you will, of him winning now eight in a row.

ROBERTS: When you were last on, we did the math on the Republican side to show that Mike Huckabee cannot become the nominee just by winning delegates, even if he wins every race. What does the math look like on the Democratic side?

KING: Stalemate is what we would call it, pretty much. This is --shows, obviously, the states last night are allocated. You see them up here. These are the states coming up closest, the ones in the gold here, Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas and Hawaii down here. John, this is a fascinating map.

Lets look where we are right now. Senator Obama pulled ahead for the first time last night, and that' significant. He now leads in the delegate chase. Senator Clinton a little bit behind him. But for the sake of argument, lets give Barack Obama everything. We showed earlier what happens if Senator Clinton -- Governor Huckabee runs the board, lets let Senator Obama run the board. Not doing this in the order they vote, just going to give him all the states.

This calculation is 55-45. And remember, the Democratic rules are proportional. So if he wins every one of these states still to vote, by 55-45 margin, look what we get. Calling all super-delegates.

ROBERTS: Still there. And we should point out, too, that no delegates for Michigan and --

KING: And that's a huge issue for the party. You point that out. It's a big point.

ROBERTS: And it's same thing for her, because they're so close as well, right?

KING: If you flip it over, she gets to just about the same spot. If you clear the telestrator and we go back to where we were here, and we give them all to Senator Clinton, same thing. Pretty much the same thing happens. She will catch up. She will pass him. But he's getting delegates at the same time she's getting delegates because of the proportional rules of the Democratic party.

I think we've got them all done there. And she passes him at that point, but they both fall short, John. Now -- and we did this earlier -- that's -- that is 55-45, excuse me. This is Obama winning everywhere 60-40. So even a bigger margin. He gets closer, but he doesn't get to the finish line.

ROBERTS: And it would be, again, the flip for her as well.

KING: Exactly, she'd be a little ahead. So either somebody breaks this 65-35, 70-30, or just the momentum carries and convinces one of them to drop out.

ROBERTS: Or super-delegates, yes.

KING: Super, super-delegates. Yes, we're going to have that conversation for a while.

ROBERTS: Fascinating stuff. John King, thanks very much -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well two headlines just into CNN right now. There are new numbers from the Commerce Department about retail sales. Retail sales up .3 percent last month, which is better than expected. Also, coming up in just a few minutes, President Bush will be making a statement about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known at FISA. The Senate passed a controversial provision to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped eavesdrop on suspected terrorists after 9/11. We're going to bring you the president's remarks coming up in just about ten minutes.

Also, some new numbers released this morning showing which cities across the country are hit hardest by the mortgage crisis, and the D.C. metro area tops that list. Nearly five percent of homes there were in some stage of the foreclosure process last year. Stockton, California ranking second, and the Las Vegas metro area coming in third. These figures are from the mortgage research company, Reality Track (ph).

In suburban Chicago this morning police say they have a tip that looks promising as they search for a suspect in the shooting deaths of five women. There is a look right now of the sketch that they released. Yesterday, police also revealed that they were within seconds of catching this gunman when that shooting occurred back on February 2nd.

They say the officer was busy in the parking lot of an adjacent store, 200 yards from the Lane Bryant store where the shooting happened, and then by the time -- the officer was on an unrelated call. By the time he got to the store, the gunman was gone. One woman did survive that shooting and gave police the description of the suspect they're using in that sketch.

Just a few hours ago the city of Berkeley, California agreed to take back an earlier vote saying Marine recruiters were not welcome in the city. City council voted last month to send a letter to the Marines, but after days of protests and another three-hour debate, the council, early this morning, voted to, 7-2, not to send that letter. The council says it still opposes the war, but recognizes the Marines' right to be in the city.

The NFL commissioner is expected on Capitol Hill today. League officials say that Roger Goodell will be meeting with Pennsylvania senator, Arlen Specter. Meeting is about the New England Patriots and accusations they spied on the New York Jets by taping signals from the sidelines. Specter reportedly wants to know why those tapes were destroyed after the NFL finished its investigation.

So what does it take to become the president of the United States? Should you know more about each of the candidates private health information? Paging Dr. Gupta. He has a closer look, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now, 15 minutes to the top of the hour. This week our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is taking a look at the health of the presidential candidates. He joins us now from Atlanta.

And Sanjay, basically as a group, how healthy are they? GUPTA: Well, they seem pretty healthy, but there's a lot of details that we still don't know, John, as you might suspect. John McCain probably has the most unanswered questions. Still, we decided to investigate a little bit. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Ronald Reagan was our oldest elected president at 69.

MCCAIN: Thank you for coming out today --

GUPTA: John McCain is two years older. McCain is a cancer survivor. He was diagnosed in 2000 with the most serious form of skin cancer, invasive melanoma, on his left temple. He had the cancerous tissue and lymph nodes in his neck removed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for serving, sir.

MCCAIN: You bet, you bet.

My health is excellent. I see my dermatologist every three months.

GUPTA: Not surprisingly, McCain is known to be extremely careful in the sun.

MCCAIN: Can we just get in the shade because --

GUPTA: As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee weighed more than 280 pounds when he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes five years ago. Through diet and exercise, the 52-year-old Huckabee is now 110 pounds lighter and symptom-free.

Teddy Roosevelt at 42 was the youngest president ever. John F. Kennedy was the youngest elected president at 43. Barack Obama, at age 46, is the youngest of the current candidates.

OBAMA: Thank you, Delaware!

GUPTA: Obama was smoker, a habit that cuts an average of 11 years off life expectancy. But the candidate told Larry King his wife, Michelle, pressured him to quit.

OBAMA: You know, I'm doing all right. That shows you how scared I am of my wife that -- cut that out, chewing Nicorette. It's working so far.

GUPTA: Hillary Clinton is 60. She has not reported any health problems. Clinton credits the spicy food she enjoys.

H. CLINTON: I am convinced that there is an ingredient in hot peppers that has kept me healthy since 1992.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: The candidates are just like the rest of us. There's no guarantees when it comes to health -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay Gupta, for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Good to see you.

And we'll be back right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. You know, we're standing by and any moment we could be going live to the Oval Office. President Bush expected to make a statement on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Senate passed a bill yesterday about it. So we'll take you there.

But meanwhile, we're starting to see all sorts of weather up and down the East coast today. Actually the I-Report coming in from that, the snow, the sleet and the ice. It's been making its way across the country. Our Veronica De La Cruz has been checking out some of the best video that we've been getting from our I-Reporters.

Boy, some real messes out there. John says, it's winter, what do you expect?

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is February. But bad weather is bad weather, unfortunately. But our I-Reporters have been busy braving the elements. And I wanted to share a couple of their pictures with you, some really, really nice ones.

We're going to start in Oswego, New York. This first one is from Deb Reagan (ph). She says her 80-year-old father had to plow them out of three feet of snow. She says it's very cold there. It was about 15 to 20 degrees below zero yesterday. So very cold there.

But, here's the good news. All of that snow means a snow day for the kids. And this is Deb's grandson, 3-year-old Joey. He definitely looks like he's having a good time there. What is he -- is he making a snowball?

CHETRY: Looks like it. Looks like he's getting ready to toss one.

DE LA CRUZ: Right. Either that or a snow angel. Is that something you guys used to do, snow angels?

CHETRY: Yes, of course.

DE LA CRUZ: I have never done one. I'm from California. It was always sand angels for me.

CHETRY: You better get out there. You've got like ten more minutes before it all melts.

DE LA CRUZ: I know.

I love this next one. This is from our I-Reporter, Erica Cruplin (ph). This is from right outside of her school. She goes to college in Springfield, Missouri. She says that her classes were canceled. But get this, even though they were canceled, her professors still sent her homework. You know, that is the beauty of e-mail these days. So a nice shot there from Erica Cruplin.

I also wanted to show you how you can deal with not just the mess on the roads, but the mess in the air. If you are headed out to the airport today, a couple of Web sites that we wanted to show you. The FAA.gov, that's a place that you can check out today. That's going to give you general airport information, that's the government's Web site.

Also, that's really interesting information on FLIGHTSTATS.gov. That's going to help you track your specific flight. Also give you a look at statistics, how often that flight arrives on time, departs on time. Again, track your specific flight there at FLIGHTSTATS.gov. So, two interesting Web sites to show you as well.

I want to mention, if you want to send us an I-Report, please do so. You can logon to CNN.com/i-report.

CHETRY: Sounds good. We got some good ones. Thanks a lot, Veronica.

DE LA CRUZ: Of course.

ROBERTS: Well as we told you, President Bush about to make a statement on FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Senate, yesterday, passed a bill that gives telephone and telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for letting the government eavesdrop on telephone calls without a warrant. A House bill does not include that immunity. So now this is going to go to the Conference Committee there. They'll have to hash out of their differences.

President Bush, obviously, going to give a big nudge to the House negotiators to say, really need to have this retroactive immunity. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against companies like AT&T and Verizon for violating this customers' privacy. The Bush administration says if those cases go forward, crucial national security secrets could be revealed, so that's the reason why it's important in the president's mind to give this retroactive immunity.

He'll be joined in the White House, in the Oval Office, by the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell. We're keeping a close eye on that. We're going to give you a quick look at what "NEWSROOM" is working on coming up for the top of the hour. But if the president suddenly appears, we'll jump right back in. Stay with us.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM" -- steroids and baseball. Pitching great, Roger Clemens, under oath on Capitol Hill shortly. Senators McCain and Obama sweep primaries in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. A top Hezbollah leader and one of the FBI's most wanted killed in a bomb blast. Dozens of wrecks on icy roads. And back to work today for TV and movie writers. "NEWSROOM," just minutes away. At the top of the hour on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to head over to Jacqui Jeras right now. She is in the extreme weather center tracking weather for us, as well as flight delays. A lot going on today weatherwise.

Hey, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. Hey, Kiran.

And when you're starting out at 7:00 in the morning with really hefty delays, you know it's not a good thing and it tends to not get better anytime soon when that happens. And we still have one closure there in Windsor Locks in Connecticut. That's closed because of the ice. They just can't get the runway clear.

We've got a ground stop now at Washington, D.C. That's at Dulles, though not National. La Guardia you've got delays. Look at that, almost five hours now. And Newark, we're looking at departure delays now on the increase, around an hour, in Philadelphia, about 50 minutes. We expect many other cities to get in on the action today, including Miami. Fort Lauderdale just issued a ground stop by the way, because thunderstorms in the area. We may see thunderstorm delays also in Tampa Bay and a little bit of fog in Los Angeles this morning could hold you up.

Now, a lot of the freezing rain that's going on here across upstate New York into Pennsylvania is going to be improving throughout the morning and a lot of this is going to be changing over to some rain. So not worried about that ice in New York City, Philly or Washington, D.C., really, any longer.

Low pressure here off the shore into the Carolinas. It's going to be pumping in some very heavy rain and some of these thunderstorms could be strong, possibly severe, late this morning and this afternoon. Now with all the moisture in place and on top of that some snow melt in the Northeast, we're real concerned about flooding.

Look at how much rain we're talking about, two to three inches. Make sure you have umbrellas this afternoon because it is going to be a downpour, not just some sprinkles -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Jacqui Jeras for us. Thanks so much.

We are also going to be hearing from former Yankee pitcher, Andy Pettitte, about Roger Clemens and human growth hormone. The "A.P." reporting some detail from Pettitte's sworn testimony before Congress last week. And in that sworn testimony, he said that Clemens told him about using HGH ten years ago. That was before it was banned in baseball, though. Clemens and his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, will be testifying today on Capitol Hill. McNamee claims he injected Clemens at least 16 times with both human growth hormone and steroids. Clemens has vehemently denied those accusations.

A final check of our quick vote this morning, who is telling the truth? Eighteen percent of you think it's Roger Clemens who is telling the truth -- 82 percent of you think it is his trainer who has said that he injected Roger Clemens with steroids. To all of you who voted this morning, thanks so much.

ROBERTS: And a reminder that can you see Roger Clemens' testify on Capitol Hill today. Live coverage at CNN.com and on our sister network, "Headline News."

And our political coverage continues tonight in prime time. Join Campbell Brown tonight in the "Election Center." It starts at 8:00 Eastern,. And I'll see you there from the "Election Center" tomorrow.

Still waiting for President Bush to appear in the Oval Office. I'm looking at the feed here. It looks exactly like the place that I was at a couple weeks ago when we were at the Reagan Library.

CHETRY: You looked so comfortable behind that big desk.

ROBERTS: It's a place where you can get comfortable.

Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you again tomorrow.

CHETRY: "CNN NEWSROOM" starts with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins starts right now.

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