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American Morning

Boy Scout Camp Survivor Recounts His Experience; People Evacuated From Towns Along the Cedar River in Iowa; Obama and McCain Spar on Economic Visions; Which Presidential Candidate is Good for the Economy?; Michelle Obama takes the Heat: Should Presidential Spouses Be Fair Game?; Interview with Congressman Ron Paul

Aired June 12, 2008 - 07:00   ET

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


MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's led by Iraqis, and the foreign fighters that you hear talked about by some in the administration are really just cannon fodder being used as suicide bombers. This is an Iraqi organization which the documents also revealed have spies inside U.S. bases. There's even architectural schematics for a U.S. bunker to be built on an American base -- John.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Revealing new insight there for us this morning. Michael Ware in Baghdad. Michael, thanks.

And you can see Michael Ware's entire exclusive report on "AC 360" tonight, 10:00 Eastern.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, it's the top of the hour right now and here's what we're working on this morning.

Evacuated. People in low-lying sections of towns along the overflowing Cedar River in Iowa out of their homes this morning. And communities along the Mississippi River being warned today that new rainfall could make the expected floods crest even worse than feared.

Also, tornadoes tear through towns, the town of Manhattan, Kansas, and Kansas State University suffering a direct hit this morning. Cars tossed around and significant damage to the college and the area around it being reported this morning.

And deadly heat. The recent heat wave in the east wasn't just uncomfortable. It was deadly. Seventeen people now dead from the day of 90, and sometimes 100 degrees plus temps.

And a camp catastrophe. Four people killed at a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa after a tornado tore through that area. A scout spokesperson says that most of the boys are from eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHET CULVER (D), IOWA: What we do know, according to a number of the young men that we were able to talk to, is they actually did seek shelter. They were sheltered in a building on the property, a number of them. We don't have precise numbers, but they were able to get into that shelter before it hit fortunately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And our Sean Callebs is live in Little Sioux, Iowa, this morning. Good morning, Sean, you heard how lucky a number of those scouts were?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, without question. We're actually about three miles from where that camp is. This is as close as officials are letting us get at this hour. From the information, we've been able to cull from the eyewitnesses. There were a number of people who were able to get into these shelters, but this is a Boy Scout camp. This is where people come for a week to just get away.

Most of the area is covered with tents. There were a number of shelters. Now, what happened when it became clear that the weather was getting violent, apparently a number of the kids and adults got underneath picnic tables. That is when a direct hit by a punishing tornado knocked over or just tumbled down a very large fireplace in essence burying a number of people.

We know that about 40 people were injured, four dead as you have said. A couple of those injured, I talked to a Red Cross nurse last night, she said that they are serious. One with a crushed pelvis. Another with a severe fracture.

Now, the National Weather Service says it did issue a tornado warning about 12 minutes before this area was hit. However, one scout leader says that's news to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIK MOORE, BOY SCOUT TROOP LEADER: Thank God that we were watching lightning or else we would have -- who knows what would happen. Like I said, there's no warning. The weather radio -- we always listen to the weather radio. The weather radio, you know, it wasn't saying anything that was useful. And if we weren't watching -- just boy scouts being prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: That's the motto, "Be prepared." We know that all of the children have been reunited with their loved ones at this hour. There are none that are missing at this hour.

And Kyra, I got to tell you, we drove from Des Moines to this area near Little Sioux last night basically through the teeth of that storm. Quite a lightning show. We were buffeted by winds and a downpour that just didn't last a short while. It basically followed us the entire way, or rather, we drove head on to it the entire way. It was a big, big violent storm.

PHILLIPS: We also talked about how lucky so many of those boy scouts were. Sean Callebs, thanks so much. Let's talk to one of them.

Rob Logsdon is a 15-year-old boy scout who actually witnessed the destruction in Iowa. He was right there. He joins us on the phone now. Rob, how are you doing this morning?

ROB LOGSDON, BOY SCOUT, EYEWITNESS TO TORNADO (ON THE PHONE): I'm doing pretty good.

PHILLIPS: Well, you were definitely one of the lucky ones. Why don't you tell me what happened, what you heard, what it felt like. Tell me how it all went down.

LOGSDON: Well, we were sitting there watching lightning as Thomas (ph) said, the one you interviewed, and we saw it come around the end of a bluff toward the entrance of the camp. So we flipped on the siren and the youth staff members ran to the assigned shelters in the north and east valleys and then we were there for about two minutes and the lights went out.

And then, our adult leader was like, OK, somebody got a flashlight? He got a flashlight from one of the campers and he went outside and came right back in and he said, everybody under the tables. So everybody dives under their tables that they were sitting in and the staff kind of joined in with the scouts and all of a sudden, two seconds later, the tornado was on top of us. And I know it picked up our adult leader's car and threw it 50 -- about 50 yards easy. It was a Ford Ranger.

And then he -- like when it first started, all the doors ripped open and my ears popped, and then the windows broke. And the next thing I know the walls of the whole shelter and the roof were just gone completely.

And the chimney, I was in front of the chimney, and it fell down behind me, and it pushed the table into my back. And I was falling forward and I got a gash on my right knee that has four stitches. I have a pretty bad sprained ankle on my right ankle, and my left hip is extremely sore because it popped out. It popped out, and then once I stood up it popped back in. And when it popped back in I was standing up trying to pull bricks off the kids that were sitting there. And then I couldn't do anymore because my hip and leg were hurting so badly because it popped back in.

PHILLIPS: Well, Rob, that right there is a sign of a true boy scout. I mean, here you were injured, and you responded to the other guys. I mean, this was firsthand training for something that -- I mean this is why you guys go to camp. You learn about survival and you learn about helping each other, and it's a pretty amazing thing that you did what you did.

Were you able to help some of your fellow boy scouts? Could you get them out of the -- were you able to respond to them and help them?

LOGSDON: Yes. There was one kid that was right behind me. He was completely underneath the table that hit me in the back, and I was pulling bricks off the table as fast as I could, and all of a sudden the table kind of came free. So I kind of jerked it loose and had another kid help me pick it up. And when I was turning to set it down, my hip popped back in, and I just kind of dropped the table and I was leaning up against it, another one that didn't break. And I had a couple of kids help me walk over to our adult leader's truck which was 50 yards away from the disaster, and we were sitting there. There were a couple of kids that were sobbing uncontrollably and crying, and they were just totally stressed out like you couldn't even imagine. I was sitting in there and was calming them down.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: What did you say to them, Rob, because you maintained so calm? What did you say to them?

LOGSDON: I was like, it's OK. We're alive. Got to calm down because you guys are -- there's a couple of older scouts that the younger ones looked up to, and I was like you guys got to stay calm. If you guys are calm and level-headed, everyone else will be level- headed. If you freak out, then it's just going to open the door for everybody to freak out. We don't want that. That would just be chaos.

PHILLIPS: Well, we know that four people were killed, about 40 injured. Were any of those your good friends or guys that you knew?

LOGSDON: Yes. There was one kid, Aaron Eilerts, I know. I went back to Little Sioux after I got out of the hospital, and his dad had just found out he died. So I want to give a shout out to Aaron Eilerts family because he was my staff partner and he was a good kid. And it's a big loss. He was a great kid.

And then there was one -- another one, Sean (ph) West. He got totally buried by the chimney that fell, and he has I think three broken ribs, I heard for sure, and possibly a broken back.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what, Rob, it's pretty amazing that you did what you did in light of what happened. And we lift all of those up that have been injured and also the four that have passed. And we sure appreciate you just telling us your story. You have stayed so strong, and my guess is you're going to become an eagle scout not long from now, Rob.

LOGSDON: OK. Thanks.

PHILLIPS: All right. Please send us your pictures and also video to -- we want to have your I-reports. This is how we're able to tell you these pretty amazing stories of survival and what it's like to be in the middle of something like that, a tornado coming through a Boy Scout camp. Just go to CNN.com/ireport and give us your personal stories.

ROBERTS: Wow. What a brave young man.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh, I was not expecting that. Then again, you know, I kind of was. If you think about the boy scouts and you think about the training they go through, he did exactly what he was supposed to do.

ROBERTS: Absolutely.

It's nine minutes after the hour now. Reynolds Wolf is live in the weather center in Atlanta keeping track of the extreme weather today. What are we in for today, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Could be more of the same in places that we had it yesterday and had it overnight. In places like, as you mentioned, Little Sioux Camp. Let's zoom in a couple of spots where we had some of the tornadoes yesterday.

There's a couple of things I want you to notice. For example in this area, take a look at this video that we have out of there. You'll notice that you see a lot of hills, a lot of trees. The topography in this part of the world is not flat like you would see in parts of Oklahoma or into western Kansas. So even if this tornado had not been rain-wrapped, the idea of these kids might have been able to see this, this storm, and take cover is pretty much nonexistent.

Another thing, they had very little warning with this storm, as you mentioned, about 11 minutes or so. That is actually about what you'd normally get with these storms, about 11 minutes in terms of a warning from the National Weather Service, which is a tremendous improvement because back in 1991, the average warning time would be about six minutes. So we more than double that.

Let's go a little bit farther to the south and show you a few other locations that were hit by these tornadoes yesterday. Some 50 reports yesterday, by the way. Chapman, Kansas, we take you there. Also to Kansas State University up by Manhattan, we had widespread damage in both locations due to the tornadoes.

Now, today, what we're going to be seeing is the possibility of more tornadoes but definitely going to be -- we're going to be dealing with some issues with flooding. Keep in mind, much of the Midwest has been dealing with the heavy floodwaters. We've got ground that is completely saturated with the additional moisture that will be coming in today. We have that possibility the true threat of flooding that could extend all the way through the weekend.

That's the latest we got for you. Let's send it back to you in New York.

ROBERTS: Reynolds, thanks very much.

To the "Most Politics in the Morning" now, Vice President Dick Cheney addressing concerns that Americans have about the economy. Cheney called on Congress to increase domestic oil exploration, pass free trade agreements, and renew the president's tax cuts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In six months will be the beginning of 2009 and the year after that, the Bush tax cuts passed by Congress in our first term will expire under the language of that law. Letting the tax cuts expire would hit the Americans with a $280 billion per year tax increase. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Despite what he calls "recent headwinds" Cheney says with the right policies, the U.S. can create jobs and prosperity on a historic level.

PHILLIPS: Meantime, John McCain and Barack Obama continue to attack each other's economic visions. Speaking on the subject of predatory credit card companies, Obama accused McCain and Republicans of siding with business over people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: John McCain has been part of the problem, not part of the solution. When he had a chance to help families avoid falling into debt, John McCain sided with the credit card companies. When he had the chance to protect teenagers and college students from deceptive credit card practices, he sided with the credit card companies. And when I fought against the credit card industry's bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt, he supported it, and he even opposed exempting families who were only in bankruptcy because medical expenses they couldn't pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Campaigning in Pennsylvania, John McCain fired back at Obama accusing him of being a tax and spend Democrat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: I don't have to tell you what tough times we're in, and we need to keep taxes low. Why in the world would anyone consider raising your taxes in difficult economic times?

Senator Obama wants to raise capital gains tax. My friends, there's 100 million people that have some kind of investment that is affected by capital gains. Why would we want to take more of the people's money and send it to Washington to spend on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it?

We got to reform the way we do business, and the first way is to eliminate wasteful pork barrel earmark spending. And we will stop it, and I will veto.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Dana Bash joins us now with more on the political sparring between McCain and Obama. And you know, let's lay it out here.

I mean, McCain is the Republican nominee here. We've been living under eight years of a Republican administration. Gas prices $4 plus a gallon. Foreclosures a nightmare across the country. Is his plan like the Bush plan or is he able to step back and say no, I'm different?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's really interesting. It's John McCain. I've been following him around for months now, trying to tell voters he's a different kind of Republican on a host of issues. But on this issue on the economy, he is really pushing classic Republican conservative credo. He really is.

You just heard him. Low taxes, low regulation, don't raise taxes at a time where there are economic problems. I mean, that really is exactly what Republicans have been pushing all along.

The one thing that he is different on, Kyra, is this idea of this gas tax holiday. You know, a lot of economists call it a gimmick. Obviously, Barack Obama calls it a gimmick. His campaign thinks that that is the one way that he can separate himself from President Bush, from other Republicans, by saying you know what, I understand how frankly a lot of low income Americans really feel right now, and just gives them a little bit of a break that they hope is his way to connect with people who aren't espousing traditional Republican philosophy.

PHILLIPS: Well, the question is, is that enough? I mean, Mitt Romney yesterday said to me, oh, no, his plan is much different from Barack Obama and we can definitely separate the two.

BASH: Yes. I mean, that is the question is whether it's enough, but I'll tell you that for John McCain he's trying to walk this really, really, really fine line of trying to keep Republicans in line with him and bring Republicans back into the fold. You heard him in that sound bite talking about the fact that we have to get rid of wasteful spending in Washington. I mean, a big problem for the Republicans right now is the fact that the deficit is sky high and the government has been spending a lot on a Republican watch.

So he's trying to bring Republicans back into the fold. At the same time, he is trying to distance himself from the Republican Party. But tax is really the one area where he thinks he can appeal to a broad swath of Democrats and Republicans.

PHILLIPS: Well, he didn't appeal to people when he made this statement about Iraq. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, NBC ANCHOR, "TODAY SHOW": Do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Oh, read between the lines. Some say he was saying Iraq is not important. BASH: Yes. Well, the rest of that sound bite I think it's important to note is that he went on to say that what's important is keeping civility in Iraq just like, as you said before, just like there are troops in Japan just like they are troops in Germany. The United States needs to focus on that as opposed to whether or not troops are going to come home.

What's the bottom line though, Kyra? The way he said that really did appear to be callous, and what was fascinating was the way Democrats jumped on it. Not just the Obama campaign, but senior Democrats in the United States Senate, his colleagues, the Senate majority leader, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, jumped on him and said, you know, that's something that shows he's out of touch, he doesn't get it.

And why is that? I mean, it really seems to be, part of it is because they want to keep Iraq on the front burner, but also they do see that there is progress in Iraq under this surge strategy that he proposed and he pushed early on. So they are worried that maybe it's not as much of a political liability for John McCain as they had originally thought.

PHILLIPS: Dana Bash, thanks.

BASH: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Sixteen minutes after the hour now, and you're watching the "Most News in the Morning."

Coming up next, Michelle Obama, possibly the next first lady. Now the latest target of Republican attacks. Effective strategy or dangerous decision?

PHILLIPS: And across the river with Ron. The self-proclaimed revolutionary sets up shop by the Republicans' convention. John is going to speak with him live in about 20 minutes.

ROBERTS: And later on, dried up. The water is still there but business going fast. Our Susan Roesgen and how we'll all feel the floods in the plains from coast to coast. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Eighteen minutes after the hour. Gerri Willis is here now filling in for Ali Velshi who is off today. She's got your business news this morning, and we're looking at polls and the presidential campaign.

GERRI WILLIS, PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: That's right. We've always got polls, some interesting polls this morning. You know, the economy we're always saying this, is issue number one this election season, and poll after poll confirming it as Americans reel from an economic downturn.

Job losses, high food prices, gas prices, down home values and a credit crunch. Those are only some of the things we're worrying about these days as we consider a new president for November. And now, a new poll out by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation shows Americans almost split on which candidate they think would be good for the economy.

In interviews with more than 900 registered voters, about a split between those who describe themselves as Democrats or independents who lean Democratic, and those who describe themselves as Republicans or independents who lean Republican.

The numbers here, as you can see on your screen, 50 percent of them told us that they think Barack Obama will be a better president to deal with the economy while John McCain came out -- came in a bit less at 44 percent. You see the percentage error there.

So Obama comes out ahead, but this poll has a three-point margin of error, which means we can safely say that Americans are about split on who they think would be good for the economy. And that's fitting because Americans have never had such a clear choice between two very different visions.

McCain is a classic supply cider who wants to stimulate the economy by keeping tax cuts in place across the board, including for the super rich. And as you know, Obama, John, is a new deal Democrat who would like to have some government programs out there to help people out.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, we'll see who voters choose, but not until the 4th of November.

WILLIS: Not until the 4th of November.

ROBERTS: A lot of time between now and then.

WILLIS: And we'll be back with more details on what folks think about these two candidates when it comes to taxes in the next hour.

ROBERTS: All right. Great. And you also got "ISSUE #1" at noon today?

WILLIS: That's right.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.

WILLIS: We'll be talking about all of these issues in the noon hour, "ISSUE #1." We'll also be answering your questions by e-mail as we do every day.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. Gerri, thanks.

WILLIS: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: The "Most News in the Morning." Is Barack Obama biracial? Does it really matter? We got such a huge response from Jason Carroll's report about this that we asked him to come back and share some of his e-mails. JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, as you can imagine, this is a sensitive subject. We were inundated by e-mails on this one. We're going to show you what some of these people had to say coming up as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the candidates are definitely bracing for a fight, but should their spouses be fair game? Many Obama supporters say that his wife Michelle is becoming a Republican target and it should stop. CNN's David Mattingly takes a closer look.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kyra, some interesting campaign strategies could be in the works that are focused on someone whose name doesn't even appear on the ballot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: Every American has --

MATTINGLY (voice-over): The Obama campaign is bracing for a fight, but the candidate isn't the only one on the defensive. His wife, Michelle Obama, could see her share of jabs as well. Republicans look at her and see a real opportunity.

MICHELLE OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA'S WIFE: For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country.

MATTINGLY: That comment four months ago caught fire, rocketing around the conservative blogosphere. The campaign was quick to say it reflected her excitement about grassroots support, but it still plays every day on the Web stirring the pot over issues of patriotism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Bob Hope and I'm proud to be an American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: It's a theme that's being woven into John McCain's campaign events. Smiling statements with a sharp negative sting.

CINDY MCCAIN, JOHN MCCAIN'S WIFE: I'm proud of my country. I don't know about you, if you heard those words earlier. I'm very proud of my country.

MATTINGLY: Republican strategists say there's a reason the wife of the Democrat who would be president is fair game.

RACHEL MARSDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: There's less information about him to temper her comments against. So what she says represents something a lot more important than perhaps other candidates in the past who have had a longer track record.

MATTINGLY: And the issue of Michelle Obama as a potential liability made simultaneous headlines on both coasts. The newspapers pointed to relentless online rumor mills, conservative blogs, and articles like this one from the "National Review" critical of Michelle Obama.

Columnist Maureen Dowd called it a good preview of how Republicans will attack Michelle suggesting that she does not share American values, mining a subtext of race. It's something the Obamas seem to be bracing for with this May appearance on "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM ABC'S "GOOD MORNING AMERICA")

MICHELLE OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA'S WIFE: We're trusting that the American voters are ready to talk about the issues and not talking about the things that have nothing to do with making people's lives better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: But I also think these folks should lay off my wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY (on camera): Lay off my wife. It was a line drawn on so many levels for this campaign and left no doubt how the Obamas were going to react. And if conventional wisdom holds true into November, opponents of the presumptive Democratic nominee will listen because attacking a candidate's wife rarely pays off.

STEPHEN MARKS, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Mr. Obama is going to come to his wife's defense. He's going to humanize both of them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Former political hit man Stephen Marks says you only have to look back to 1992 when Bill Clinton stood up to critics of his wife, and we all know how that race turned out -- John, Kyra.

ROBERTS: All right. David Mattingly this morning. David, thanks.

You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." "Planet in Peril." We're taking you halfway around the world where our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is bringing us new information about the beginnings of deadly viruses like HIV and Ebola.

Also ahead, the mini convention in Minneapolis. Ron Paul's rally across the river. We talk with him live just coming up on the other side of the break. And there's the congressman now.

You're watching the "Most News in the Morning" on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: There will be a revolution going on just down the block from the Republican convention in September, and GOP Congressman Ron Paul says you're all invited.

He's still technically in the presidential race and planning to compete with the RNC by holding a convention of his own. Congressman Paul joins us now from Washington. Congressman, good to see you again.

REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much. Nice to be with you.

ROBERTS: This mini convention in Minneapolis, what's it all about?

PAUL: Well, first, we're not calling it a convention, and we don't call it mini. We're going to have a rally. It's a celebration, and we're going to complement and praise everybody that worked so hard in the past year, and move on to the next stage of the revolution. And we think it's going to be a grand rally, and we're looking forward to it, and we think we're going to do quite well.

We've already expanded the arena that we're going to hold it in because of the positive reception, and I think we've only started to work on this. So we're very optimistic that we're going to have a real nice celebration of the views that we've been holding and promoting in this past year.

ROBERTS: It was only a metaphor because there has been nothing mini about the Ron Paul Revolution.

(LAUGHTER)

And we're always happy to have you on. What message are you going to send to the folks across the river there who are at the actual convention?

PAUL: There will be a message, and it's going to be different. We're not going to parade. We're not going to march. We're not going to disrupt them. We're not going to demonstrate as much as present a positive case for values that we believe should be the Republican values. Limited government, personal liberty, a sensible foreign policy, and a sound monetary system, and promote the constitution, promote what has made the country great, and really much of what the Republicans claim they stand for.

So we're going to just remind the country and the people and the Republican Party, especially the conservative wing of the party, that we don't have to accept big government programs and blending the two parties together where the people don't have an actual choice. And there's a lot of people out there looking forward to a message like this.

ROBERTS: John McCain is the standard bearer for the party. Does he represent those values faithfully?

PAUL: I think so very much.

ROBERTS: Really?

PAUL: The values that we're competing with, not our values.

ROBERTS: Oh, no, no, no. That's what I meant.

PAUL: Yes.

ROBERTS: Does he represent true Republican values?

PAUL: Well, no, I don't think so at all. I mean, George Bush did in his first race in the year 2000, about a humble foreign policy and no policing the world and no nation building, but now John McCain has a different foreign policy, and he supports No Child Left Behind and higher taxes, even though he talks differently now. He supported higher taxes and McCain/Feingold, you know, a First Amendment abuse.

So I would say he does not represent limited government values and that the Republicans deserve to hear the other side of the story.

ROBERTS: You know you're talking about changes that John McCain has made. There's another politician who's in the race that's made changes as well -- Georgia congressman, Bob Barr.

He was a faithful Republican, supported a lot of their conservative policies. Now he's the leader of the libertarian party. They would have loved to have had you. You wouldn't run as a libertarian.

Let's listen to what Bob Barr told me back on May the 26th about his chances in this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB BARR (L), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There are millions of voters out there that are going to vote for Senator McCain. And we aim to reach those voters with the message of smaller government and more individual liberty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Congressman, what do you think of Bob Barr? Does he faithfully represent the values of the Libertarian Party?

PAUL: I think so. It doesn't mean that he could -- you could look at his voting record like you look at mine and say that there was never any infractions. That doesn't mean that he can't represent these values, and he's saying the things that he should be saying. He joined the Libertarian Party and he presents these views, and he talks our language.

So I do really believe that he can have a very positive effect in this campaign and let the people know that limited government is a very, very important message and people will have a chance, and that gives him -- you know, everybody a choice in the matter. ROBERTS: Right. Well, we'll keep on following your campaign and your maxi/mini convention there as well.

Congressman Paul, good to see you again.

PAUL: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: We're monitoring a live news conference that's happening right now in Omaha. Boy scouts of America talking about that tornado that ripped through their camp killing four people, injuring 40 more.

Let's listen in.

LLOYD ROITSTEIN, BOY SCOUTS OF MID-AMERICA COUNCIL: When I was up there about 7:00 p.m. last night, there were hundreds and hundreds of vehicles and volunteers up there striving to do everything they can to make this a better -- make the best of this challenge for us, and they did a great job.

And I also want to commend our scouts and our scout leaders. They're out there learning how to learn scouting and to learn the skills necessary for emergencies.

The day before this emergency, they had a drill, a tornado drill, an emergency drill, and learned what to do, and that day they were out there practicing first aid, saving their friends, saving other scouters, saving the lives of our camp director who was under his house, and they did a tremendous job, and they kept cool.

The leadership, the young scouts that were there, all 13, 14 through 17 years of age, and they were wonderful.

Right now we are working with the families of those affected by this tragedy and the local authorities to assess the situation. I'll be back up at Little Sioux Scout Ranch today with our volunteers and with the state of Iowa to assess the damage and what we need to do.

Also, we are currently working with our national response team who is en route to Little Sioux Scout Ranch to assist in the recovery efforts. We have arranged for professionals to provide grief counseling to all those involved, including the families, the scout troops, and the leaders in scouting and participating in this event.

We expect that we have additional -- we'll have additional details later today and will work toward giving you continual updates as they become available. We ask that you please keep our fellow scouts and their families in your thoughts and prayers during this most difficult time for our scouting family.

And when I mention scouting family, we literally had hundreds and hundreds of calls from our scouters wanting to know how they could help, and we had our staff down here throughout the night answering hundreds of calls from our families. They did a tremendous job.

So the scouting program is working, and we are proud of those young men who are out there practicing the skills that we teach every day to make their lives better and to save other lives.

At this time we'll answer any questions you may have.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

ROITSTEIN: No, we're going to let local authorities do that. They're still working with those four families and we will let them release those hopefully soon.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

ROITSTEIN: Yes. They set up a command site, command post site, in Little Sioux, Iowa, and they were told the parents could go to Little Sioux, and any information that we had we'd pass on to them.

They were also given the phone number of the local law enforcement to call and see what the status is and was. The challenge, as you may know, we had -- we have an 1,800-acre camp, and the scouts were -- some of them were out hiking and some of them were at other places, and it took us a while for the rescue teams to locate everybody and get organized.

They did a tremendous job, and we responded as fast as we could for those families, and all of the families have been united together right now, and everything is hopefully moving forward.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There was a lot of talk earlier in the day about storms that were coming and tornadoes possible. Did they prepare during the day just in case the evening brought storms?

ROITSTEIN: Again, scouts practice being prepared every day. They also had an emergency weather radio out there and they knew that there was possible storms coming, and they talked about that, and they knew where to go, where the best locations to go in case something happened and they were ready, and they performed remarkably.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They have these cabins. They were referring to them as shelters when we talked to some of the scouts. Are they set up to be -- I don't know if it's a severe thunderstorm comes through, are they set up well enough to be able to protect the scouts if they're inside of those cabins?

ROITSTEIN: Absolutely not. This is a high adventure camp, and the scouts that go to this camp, it's mostly wilderness. It's 1,800 acres of wilderness, 30 miles of trails. They sleep in tents. They rough it, and we teach the scouts when they're in the wilderness what to do, where to go in case there's a storm, but there was no -- there's no building that could stand the force of that tornado that hit. No way to prepare for that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you shed any light on the four victims, whether or not that they're camp counselors or scouts that were there?

ROITSTEIN: Three of them were scouts and one of them was a staff, a youth staff member.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

ROITSTEIN: I think we're going to wait on that until the local authorities release that information. We want to make sure that they've done everything they need to do with those four families and we don't want to jump the gun on that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you provide the names of scouts and (INAUDIBLE)

PHILLIPS: Boy Scouts of America council president Lloyd Roitstein really hitting it on the mark there talking about his boy scouts with a firsthand experience attending a wilderness high adventure camp.

And they were actually doing first aid training and learning about survival skills when the tornado ripped through the camp there slamming into the Little Sioux Scout Ranch right near the Nebraska state line.

About 40 people injured, four killed. They're not releasing the names at this point. Obviously, still trying to get in touch with family members.

But want to point out, and we even heard that when we interviewed one of the boy scouts, 15-year-old Rob Logsdon, just a few minutes ago talking about being buried underneath the rubble and even if this young man who was injured was looking for other boy scouts, brining -- tearing through the bricks and trying to save and help those that were affected by that tornado that ripped through the camp.

So right now grief counselors being brought in to deal with the families and the boy scouts that survived that tornado trying to move forward. Talk with family members. We're going to continue to bring you more information of what has happened to those that have been affected, but really bringing it home there. The council president talking about the bravery and the courage of those young boys that did survive and did tend to those that were injured and hurt in that tornado this morning.

ROBERTS: And confirming that three of the dead were scouts and one was a youth staff member.

You're watching the most news in the morning. Major flooding causing major problems in the Midwest this morning. We're going to look at the damage that all that water is doing to the economy.

And Dr. Sanjay Gupta traveled all the way to Cameroon to find out if chimps and other animals could open the door to new diseases in humans. We're going to go across the ocean for his report, ahead on the most news in the morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Barack Obama has tried to make the issue of race irrelevant, but his Democratic victory has drawn attention to his racial identity.

We had a huge response from viewers after we aired Jason Carroll's piece about Obama's heritage.

Here's a clip from that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Last Tuesday Senator Barack Obama made history as the first African-American or first black presumptive nominee for a major party, depending on the headline. He's a first. That's not disputed. The question: is it accurate to call him black?

MICHAELA ANGELA DAVID, CULTURAL CRITIC: First of all, he can't say I'm a white guy named Barack Hussein Obama. You know, no one is going to buy that. We're not ready for that.

CARROLL: In a speech on race Senator Obama made clear he hails from a biracial family.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: I'm the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather.

CARROLL: Despite that heritage, Obama identifies himself as black in part because that's what people see.

DAVID MENDELL, AUTHOR, "OBAMA: FROM PROMISE TO POWER": He walks into a room. People do not see someone who is white or biracial. They generally see someone who is -- who looks African-American.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Jason Carroll joining us now. I am so curious to hear how people responded. I can just imagine.

CARROLL: Oh, yes.

PHILLIPS: Mad, frustrated, this shouldn't be an issue?

CARROLL: Well, we got it all. I mean after the story ran, I think it ended up being a top 10 story in CNN.com. More than half a million hits. A lot of people...

PHILLIPS: Wow.

CARROLL: ... wanted to, you know, get in there and voice their opinions. We want to share some of those opinions with you.

We're going to start out with Nicole. She wrote in and said, "If he identifies himself as black so be it. We are voting for the man, the content of his character, his positions, the leadership he may offer. We are not voting for the color of his skin."

The next viewer got a little personal, Kyra. This person writes, "I can't believe that such an article has been posted on your site. What is the difference if he's white or black? He's human and that's all it counts. Does Jason Carroll not possess the intelligence to dig for a subject with more substance?"

Wow, thanks for that one.

And next we have Ellen who writes, "My daughter is biracial. She does not understand people calling Barack Obama black. People who do not like this article clearly do no have this situation in their family and so do not understand the importance of this issue."

And finally another viewer writes, "If this article had asked if John McCain was white, would all of you have been so offended? I see nothing wrong with asking the question."

We wanted to get a little bit more perspective on this issue. So what we did was reach out to Manning Marable. He's one of the noted professors of history and political science at Columbia University.

So I want you to listen to what he had to say in terms of trying to put this whole subject matter into some sort of perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROF. MANNING MARABLE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: The real question is not so much what Barack Obama's color is, but how can we look at this as an opportunity to change the way we think about leadership in this country, that we should draw upon all ethnicities and not just white Americans to provide the leadership and vision that the country desperately needs as we face these challenges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: I think at the end of the day, Kyra, whenever you bring up the subject of race, it is a sensitive subject...

PHILLIPS: Sure.

CARROLL: ... that's really going to, you know, affect people no matter what you end up saying about it.

PHILLIPS: Yes, we're a multicultural society. We need to embrace that and talk about it. It's interesting, too, because the discussion at the beginning -- is he black enough? It was all focused on...

CARROLL: Right.

PHILLIPS: ... OK, African-American. Do you call him African- American, is he black enough? Now it's moving into this other discussion and it's -- these are Americans.

CARROLL: But the point is at least it's a discussion, and I think that's what's important.

PHILLIPS: Right. CARROLL: Get it out there and discuss it, talk about it.

PHILLIPS: And as to the other e-mailer, you're one of the smartest reporters I know. And I've known you for more than 20 years. You know what? You can take that to the bank.

All right. Jason, thanks.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Kyra.

ROBERTS: You're watching the most news in the morning.

From the Midwest to your front door, how your family will feel the floods in the plains states. Our Susan Roesgen is live in Wisconsin this morning.

Good morning, Susan.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. If this were a rice field, the farmer here might be OK, but it isn't. It is so I beans underneath this water and the crop is lost. It's going to affect you at the grocery store.

We'll have that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up on 49 minutes after the hour, we've been talking about the terrible weather out there in the Midwest, and this would be fine -- this picture behind me -- if it were a lake. But it's not a lake. It's a farmer's field.

And guess who's out standing in that farmer's field? Our Susan Roesgen in East Bristol, Wisconsin this morning.

If the farmer's field is under water, Susan, it can't be good news.

ROESGEN: No it's not good news at all, John. Ninety-nine percent of the farms here in Wisconsin are family-owned farms. These are people who are just trying to make it year to year. You know a farmer's life is never easy, but, you know, look at this.

This is a soybean field. I have talked to two different farmers today and last night. They are really struggling. One person has lost 25 percent of his crop, both corn and soybean. The woman who owns this farm -- she's lost almost all of her soybean crop and that's what I'm in right now. They just cannot handle this much water.

And John, I would walk around a little bit maybe to show you more, but my boot is stuck, I'm telling you. This is how tough it is. Can you imagine to try to get a tractor in here if you were even to try to go in in some places where there isn't quite as much water and you can actually see the plant tops.

The farmers want to get in the fields and get their tractors out and start spraying the weeds, but the ground won't support it. Tractors are too heavy, the ground is too saturated. They just can't even get out in their fields, John, to spray the weeds.

It's really tough. Corn top a record $7 a bushel yesterday. That is being attributed to all the rain. We're going to pay more for corn flakes in the morning. Pig farmers are going to pay for more pig feed. This thing is going to trickle all the way down the line.

So when harvest comes -- what little they harvest is going to cost a lot more -- John.

ROBERTS: And this nation and the world already has enough problems on the food front.

Susan Roesgen for us -- Susan, thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (voice over): Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, calorie controversy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It definitely affects what you order.

ROBERTS: Do you really want to know what's in that Big Mac?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's ridiculous.

ROBERTS: Ahead, a showdown at the fast food counter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as we're concerned, it's business as usual.

ROBERTS: You're watching the most news in the morning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: "Business Travelers Advisory" brought to you by...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's 54 minutes after the hour. Here on the most news in the morning, we are committing our global resources to bringing you important stories from around the world.

We're paging our Dr. Sanjay Gupta long distance this morning. He's in Cameroon as part of our next "PLANET IN PERIL" series to find out if the west African nation could be the next hot spot for HIV and Ebola outbreaks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What you're looking at is chimpanzee in the Mfou Sanctuary here in the heart of Cameroon.

You might question like I did why you even need a sanctuary in the middle of the jungle. The problem is that many of these chimpanzees are hunted. And they're hunted for their bush meat that provide an important source of protein for many of the locals that also makes it necessary to have a place like this.

What's also so fascinating for scientists is trying to study these chimpanzees and other animals in the wild to figure out -- is there an interface here? Is there an interface between animals and humans that could lead to the exchange of viruses and parasites -- things that you might heard of like HIV, Ebola, Marburg, malaria.

Where exactly did those pathogens come from and how do they get into humans? That's what people are trying to study here.

Now we're out there as, obviously, part of the "PLANET IN PERIL" studies trying to answer that very question and we're traveling even further deep into the jungle. And as I get some of those answers, I'll bring them to you.

Back to you for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Sanjay Gupta for us this morning in Cameroon. And keep your eye out for a new "PLANET IN PERIL" series, "Battlelines," coming this fall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice over): Without warning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The grace of God helped us for sure.

PHILLIPS: A tornado tears through a Boy Scout camp killing four and wounding 40. That's ahead on the most news in the morning.

ANNOUNCER: "Paging Dr. Gupta" brought to you by...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning. We're getting new information on the tornado that ripped through a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa. Four people were killed, 40 others injured. Three of the dead were scouts.

Iowa's governor spoke earlier this morning about what happened on the ground just seconds before the storm hit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHET CULVER (D), IOWA: Well, what we do know according to a number of the young men that we were able to talk to is they actually did seek shelter. They were sheltered in a building on the property, a number of them. We don't have precise numbers, but they were able to get into that shelter before it hit fortunately.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: And in northeast Kansas, two people are dead today after a tornado ripped open the countryside destroying more than 60 homes and damaging three schools.

A tornado also struck the campus of Kansas State University. A number of buildings were damaged, but so far no reports of any injuries at this university -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: And all across the Midwest the rivers are rising and the rain just keeps coming in.

Right now in Iowa crews frantically building up levees as they try to hold back the water. We're joined now by Colonel Greg Hapgood with the Iowa National Guard. He joins us live from Des Moines.

Good to see you, Sir. Tell me exactly what you're doing right now to help the residents in the area.

LT. COL. GREG HAPGOOD, IOWA NATIONAL GUARD: Well, right now across the state of Iowa we have more than 640 soldiers (INAUDIBLE) from the Iowa National Guard that are helping their fellow Iowans, Number one -- our number one mission, though, is to make sure we keep the people safe, protecting Iowans.

And number two is preserve property, especially that property that might -- belong to municipality or a county or the state of Iowa.

So right now we have a number of different missions going on across the state. We're involved in sand bagging operations in several locations in the state. We're providing security to certain areas to make sure that people stay out of those areas that can be extremely dangerous.

We're also making sure that people are safe in some house-to- house checks with local law enforcement, certain communities, helping to evacuate individuals in dangerous areas. And also, we're ready to provide emergency water distribution as need be as well.

PHILLIPS: And Colonel, I'm actually looking at the backdrop behind you. I've actually walked that bridge. Can you just turn around and show me? I see the yellow tape. Just to give our viewers kind of an idea of how high the waters have risen and how you sort of -- I'm assuming you have people out of this area. You're not letting people into this area downtown.

HAPGOOD: Well, certainly, if you look at this bridge behind us here, the water is nearly to the top of the opening on each of these bridges that have been closed by the state of Iowa and with the law enforcement.

Certainly there...