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Midwest Floods: Hannibal, Missouri, Braces for Crest; Interview With Sally Ride, America's First Woman in Space; Rooting out Militants in Afghanistan; Michelle Obama Steps into the Spotlight

Aired June 19, 2008 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the floodwaters that have engulfed the Midwest. It happened again.
The flood-driven waters of the Mississippi River burst through another levee. This one in Winfield, Missouri, just 50 miles north of St. Louis. Water surged over 35,000 acres. The latest to be claimed by the raging river that still threatens many other places, including Mark Twain's home town of Hannibal, Missouri.

Our CNN weather specialists are watching every development for you. Our Chad Myers is standing by in the CNN severe weather center, and Josh Levs is looking over the videos and photos coming in from our iReporters.

Our correspondents are all over the flood zone, too, including Paul Vercammen. He is a producer there. He is in Winfield, Missouri. Reynolds Wolf is in Hannibal, Missouri. And our Allan Chernoff is in Oakville, Iowa.

But first we start with Reynolds Wolf. He joins us now, as we said, from Winfield.

Reynolds, what's the very latest from there? I saw earlier that you were up to your waste in water. Yesterday, you were helping out. Tell us what's going on where you are.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What we're seeing right now is we're seeing the floodwaters rise once again. Rivers expected to crest around 31 feet as we get into tomorrow.

What I'm standing in -- or standing on at this point -- is a stump that used to be in the middle of a field. Right now it's in the middle of a lake.

You have right behind me a couple of buildings that, again, under any other circumstances, under a perfect day, might be open for business, might have all kinds of activity. But today, they're completely waterlogged. And as I mentioned, the water continues to rise.

Back there in the distance we have Bear Creek. Bear Creek normally flows into parts of the Mississippi River. It's a tributary. But today, with so much water that's building up in the Mississippi River, that it's beginning to backflow. We're expecting that water, as I mentioned, to keep going on. Now, the stump that I'm standing on -- yes, I know some of you at home, you might be kind of skeptical wondering, you know, is he only, you know, in a few feet of water or a few inches of water here and there? To give you an idea, I'm going to try to get off the stump and get in the water.

I'm not exactly the most graceful person in the world. These are size 16 shoes, mind you. So let's see here if I can do this without falling and breaking my neck.

LEMON: Reynolds, careful.

WOLF: If I do, my mom's going to kill me.

LEMON: Careful there. Easy, dude. Yes, I know, you might need a boat where you are, too.

Oh, OK. Whoa.

WOLF: There you go.

LEMON: There you go.

WOLF: Yes. But, you know, the thing that's so scary about this is that we've seen a lot of these people, a lot of these neighborhoods in this area completely evacuated. People really smart. They have been heeding the warnings, they've been taking off, they've been taking their most prized possessions and leaving the neighborhoods, doing the smart thing, not waiting to see how high these waters will go.

They've been very proactive. That's exactly what we've been hoping for would happen.

The danger here certainly does exist. The water rises. But then you have to remember, we're talking hundreds of miles up and down the Mississippi where situations like this are playing out as we speak and will continue to play out as we make our way into the end of the week, through the weekend, and maybe ever early next week.

Don, let's send it back to you.

LEMON: Yes. And you know what? You've been out there working. We don't want you to put a hole in those waders, because we're going to need you, Reynolds. So careful.

WOLF: Absolutely.

LEMON: Careful getting -- wading through those waters. We'll see you in just a little bit.

Our Reynolds Wolf reporting for us.

President Bush is getting an up-close look at the staggering damage in Iowa. Mr. Bush arrived in the flood zone late this morning. That was local time. He had got a helicopter tour, plus briefings in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Before his arrival, several state officials said they hoped the president absorbed the lessons of Hurricane Katrina.

And among the needs the feds are set to address, localized shortages of drinking water, housing for people whose homes aren't livable, and disaster relief for farmers. The Iowa Farm Bureau estimates losses at 1.3 million acres of corn and two million acres of soybeans.

As we speak, the House is set to approve some $2 billion in flood relief as part of a deal with the White House. The money was added to a war funding bill that includes more benefits for veterans and the unemployed.

First, though, we want to talk now to CNN's Paul Vercammen. He joins us by phone from Winfield, the site of last night's levee breach.

Any improvement where you are now, Paul?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is improvement, because every single moment that these National Guardsmen and women to put a sandbag up on the levee here, they use to further fortify the second levee in Winfield. As we talked about earlier, Don, Winfield is rather nicely set up, some civil engineering.

They have a system of levees here. The first one is the one that was breached, and now it's all up to them holding here at the second levee.

And as you look around here, you can see that they're doing a very good job of getting more sandbags on top of those second levees here in Winfield, just east of the town. As we discussed, if that levee is somehow breached or overtopped, the water would then make a run straight into Winfield.

There is a lot of manpower out here right now. The Missouri National Guard has at least 150 people committed to the sandbagging effort. You can see them scurrying around. From the air they must look like ants, and all of them fortifying different spots of this levee.

And then just over to my right, welcomed relief for some of them. It looks like they're getting some water and a little bit of a lunch. And they will undoubtedly go back out there and continue to fortify the levee here in Winfield where the story is so far, so good. Some flooding into the town at the east, and there is a threat to the small town of Foley, just to the north of Winfield, but we haven't seen anything cataclysmic so far.

Paul Vercammen joining us from Winfield.

We appreciate that, Paul.

(WEATHER REPORT) PHILLIPS: All right. Well, here's a blast from the past. The first American woman in space, remember that name? We're going to talk with Sally Ride.

LEMON: And a major operation in Afghanistan. The United States and NATO declare successes and claim dozens of Taliban have been killed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It was a history-making moment. Do you remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition, and liftoff. Liftoff of SPS7 (ph) and America's first woman astronaut. And the shuttle has pulled the power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And that woman blasting off into the record books was astronaut Sally Ride. And can you believe it's been 25 years this week since she made history?

I had the honor and the privilege to speak with her today about what that launch felt like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Take me back there. What do you think is the most vivid memory from that moment?

SALLY RIDE, FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN IN SPACE: Well, without a doubt, the most vivid memory is the moment that the engines light and then the solid rockets light. You know, there is just nothing like it.

I've been trying for 25 years to come up with the words to describe it, and I just haven't been able to. It's, you know, tons and tons of rocket fuel exploding underneath you. And that's what it feels like.

PHILLIPS: I don't think you can ever top that kind of adrenaline rush.

RIDE: I don't think so. I'm not sure I'd want to, frankly. That was exhilarating enough for me, and it was absolutely spectacular.

PHILLIPS: Was it spiritual as you kissed the heavens?

RIDE: You know, what was absolutely amazing to me was the feeling I had looking back at Earth. The perspective that that view gives you on your planet is just -- you know, you can't get it just standing on the ground with your feet firmly planted on Earth. You can only get it from space. And it's just remarkable how far beautiful our planet is and how fragile it looks.

PHILLIPS: Did you think at that moment, wow, I am making history?

RIDE: You know, I thought at that moment, wow, I get to do this. But then after I got back and the -- you know, the enormity of it hit me, I realized that I was making history, that I had made history. And that's made the whole thing very special for me.

PHILLIPS: Well, Sally, you are going to be a tennis pro. How did you make the switch to, hmm, I think I'll be an astronaut?

RIDE: Well, I think maybe that switch was made for me by my forehand, you know.

(LAUGHTER)

RIDE: It wasn't my better stroke. So I think I probably made the wise decision. But I was a very avid, competitive tennis player when I was growing up and on into college.

PHILLIPS: And so what made you decide to be an astronaut? I was reading that you were reading through the paper and you saw some type of -- I mean, there's all kinds of urban myths out there.

What really happened?

RIDE: Well, this one is kind of amazing. I was a physics major. In fact, I was in grad school, just a couple of months away from getting my Ph.D. in physics at Stanford. And I was literally sitting in the Stanford student cafeteria on Tuesday morning at 8:00 in the morning reading the Stanford student newspaper. And I saw in the lower right-hand corner of page three an ad that NASA had put into the Stanford student newspaper and newspapers around the country saying that they were looking for astronauts. So I guess I got this job by applying through an ad.

PHILLIPS: Wow. And I know Billie Jean King, through tennis, has been one of your best friends, still is. She was an incredible inspiration to you, a mentor. How did she play into your life when you left tennis and went the NASA route.

RIDE: You know, she was an inspiration to me while I was growing up just because she was the best tennis player around. And so as a tennis player, I always looked up to her.

And then I began to appreciate her impact more and more. You know, she was really a driving force behind Title IX, which, of course, was critical to student athletes and also to women in general. And I think that frankly we've all benefited from that.

We kept in touch just very sporadically. She came to one of my launches. And then she and I were in touch after the flight. She actually helped me understand how to navigate the world of the public. You know, the press, the attention. And I had plenty of that and needed all the help I could get after that first flight. PHILLIPS: Well, I love the picture of you, Billie Jean King and Gloria Steinem. There you go, right there, all the trailblazers for women. Now, the only person missing from your posse is Hillary Clinton.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: What do you...

RIDE: That's right. Actually...

PHILLIPS: Go ahead.

RIDE: ... that picture was taken I think right after my first flight. Just probably just a couple of months after landing. I'm sure I know which picture you're referring to.

And you're right, Hillary Clinton just had an amazing impact on women around the country. I think we just all got caught up in her campaign. And she has just done a remarkable amount for women. I think we should all be grateful to her.

I think that actually, her impact, she'll undoubtedly have a huge impact on politics and encourage more and more women to go into politics. Of course, we have a lot of women in Congress and in the Senate and in governors' offices around the country now. Not as many as we need, but those numbers have been going up steadily.

I'm sure she'll continue that. But I think that her impact has been more on just the average women around the country who've seen that there really are no limits to what a woman can do in this country these days. And that's just -- that's an inspirational message and lets us all know that we can achieve whatever we want to achieve.

PHILLIPS: Amen. Your a living example of that.

Sally Ride, congratulations. This week, your 25th anniversary of that first flight into space by a woman. So great to talk to you. What an honor.

RIDE: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Now Sally is encouraging other women to make history. She spends a lot of time encouraging young girls and young women to get into science with her Sally Ride science festivals -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Kyra.

The battlefield is outside Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. And for two days now, NATO troops, mostly from Canada, have joined with Afghan forces to clear villages of Taliban fighters.

And our Nic Robertson joins us now by telephone. He is in Kabul.

And Nic, the United States and NATO are declaring victory here. They're saying that dozens of Taliban have been killed?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fifty-three Taliban have been killed. An unknown number, they're saying, are wounded.

Afghan officials are describing it as a success. They're saying that the Taliban, who had taken control of this area, a key strategic, important economic farming area just outside the southern town of Kandahar, the officials here are saying that the Taliban have effectively been routed from that area.

President Karzai has said that many of them were foreign terrorists. Other Afghan officials have said some of them were Pakistanis, some of them were Arabs.

What NATO is describing that happened, that took place, there were lots of small battles, small confrontations over several days rather than one big decisive battle. The picture that's emerging here, Don, is that although 56 Taliban have been killed, quite a lot have been injured, there were hundreds there. And it does appear the Taliban have used tactics similar to those they've used before. When they're outgunned and outmanned, they down their weapons and they run away. They live to fight another day.

And this is a problem for the Afghan government. And this appears to be the scenario that's happened in the (INAUDIBLE) area, just outside of Kandahar -- Don.

LEMON: It seems though that after we have heard all of these Taliban fighters were sort of banding back together, it seems that they acted pretty quickly. At least NATO and the U.S., including Canada and what have you, acted pretty quickly in trying to root these guys out.

ROBERTSON: This is a problem that's been developing just outside of Kandahar. Late last year, a warlord, if you like, an Afghan warlord loyal to the government here, died. That put the area into somewhat of a power vacuum.

It's been -- the Taliban have been trying to take control, not been able to do it. But this massive jailbreak, where they sprung using a suicide bomber, (INAUDIBLE) Kandahar over the weekend, they sprung 400 Taliban fighters. A lot of them went into that area and they appeared to want to make a stand.

It makes for the Taliban good political sense if they can say, hey, we can control an area, because NATO and the Afghan government say, no you can't. And they've shown that they can't.

The Afghan government moved very swiftly here, flying hundreds of Afghan troops down to Kandahar to tackle the problem. And this does make President Karzai, whose popularity has been flagging, it does give him a boost in the opinion polls here -- Don.

LEMON: Nic Robertson, always appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much from Kabul. PHILLIPS: Well, straight ahead, another levee breached and even more threatened. We're going to have the very latest on the Midwest flooding.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York City.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: And it's 2:28 Eastern Time. Here are some of the stories that we're working on right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

People up and down the Mississippi River filling sandbags, shoring up levees and hoping the floodwaters will stop rising soon. Broken levees are the big problem right now in parts of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. And President Bush has arrived in Iowa to actually see the damage for himself now.

And the FBI has arrested more than 300 people in a federal investigation targeting mortgage fraud. Arrested in a related case, two former fund managers at the New York investment bank Bear Stearns.

And strong criticism of Zimbabwe's leader today by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Speaking at the U.N., Rice says that Robert Mugabe is sponsoring efforts to intimidate and even kill supporters of his political opponent so he can win an upcoming election.

LEMON: So among the cities still in the path of that high water, East St. Louis, Illinois. There, too many fear the levees won't hold.

More on the threat from CNN's Drew Griffin. He's from our Special Investigations Unit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): On the Illinois side of the great river, East St. Louis is sitting precariously in the path of a potential disaster. And all that protects it and its residents from the floodwaters of the Mississippi are four levees that no one can guarantee will hold.

TIMOTHY KUSKY, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY: These ones have already been determined by the Army Corps of Engineers, by FEMA, to be structurally deficient and in danger of failing at heights of about 40 feet.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And I see all -- I see hotels, I see a casino, I see all of downtown East St. Louis. We're not talking about acres and acres of flooded corn here. KUSKY: No, we're talking about 155,000 people who live here. We're talking about 50,000 jobs. We're talking about oil refinery. We're talking about major businesses. We're talking about major developments in this part of the country.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Tim Kusky, professor of national sciences with the St. Louis University, is one of the foremost experts on what causes levees to fail. He outlined in a book exactly how New Orleans' levees would fail two years before it happened.

And now, he's concerned what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina could happen he here. The immediate fear is subterranean cracks, leaks in these earthen dams that will expand as the pressure from the rising floodwaters continues. It's called seepage. Enough seepage can create the kind of blowout that could erode the levee from the bottom up.

At one stop on our tour, the professor pointed out it's already happening.

KUSKY: This is water that's come underneath the levee.

ROBERT BETTS, CITY MGR., EAST ST. LOUIS, ILL.: I'm pretty certain this is water coming from underneath the levee.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And this is the sign of a particular failure in a levee?

KUSKY: It's a sign of under seepage. The under-seepage is the first stage of dangerous conditions that can lead to levee failure. It has to get a lot worse than this, but this is the first stage and this is a warning sign.

BETTS: This is serious -- this is serious business here. And this great Mississippi doesn't play and it's showing you that today. As we stand here now, we see the water seeping underneath our feet.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): East St. Louis city manager, Robert Betts, is now reviewing the city's evacuation plan and says he will have inspectors monitoring for more leaks until the immediate danger passes.

But this is not a new problem. Last August, the Army Corps of Engineers concluded the levees that are supposed to protect metro East St. Louis are at risk of failure due to structural deficiencies. The Army Corps has offered to help the three counties in the area try to fix the problem, but says it will take time and more than $100 million. The river is expected to crest here sometime Monday.

Drew Griffin, CNN, East St. Louis, Illinois.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Two historic floods in less than 15 year, and now a recognition that it may be more than just coincidence. Some scientists now say it may be a result of farming practices. Joining us now from Ames, Iowa Professor Elwynn Taylor, agricultural meteorologist at Iowa State University.

Elwynn, great to see you. You know what caught my attention -- I was reading "The Washington Post" here this morning and the headline said, "Iowa Flooding Could Be An Act Of Man." So of course, that grabbed my attention. And you're quoted in the article.

Tell me why you're saying that.

PROF. ELWYNN TAYLOR, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY: Well there are a couple of reasons. But, first, we've done a great deal to aggravate the situation. Of course, the act of God, if will, the weather conditions will be the No. 1 factor. But how we have handled them has a lot to do with our heritage over the years. Over the past 100 years, and particularly since the mid '60s, we've changed our land practice a great deal. This has made us much more susceptible to greater flooding, even with the same amount of precipitation.

PHILLIPS: And Elwynn, tell us what we've done. I was reading in the article that basically we've hacked away at the landscape, taking away water-absorbing functions.

What exactly have we done -- have farmers done -- to do that?

TAYLOR: If a certain amount of rain falls during an entire year -- that which is in excess of what is used by plants and evaporates into the atmosphere is going to go somewhere. Generally into the streams. And if the surface is not something that absorbs the water, or slows the water in its path, we will have a high crest and a rapid runoff that causes those high crests. So part of what we see is that the land is shedding its water faster than it would if it were in a more natural state.

PHILLIPS: Well now I see why it's so important when we talk about protecting the wetlands and the tall grass and putting the prairies back into the landscape.

You talk about buffer strips. Explain why those are so important, and do you think farmers now will be putting in buffer strips as they begin to rebuild?

TAYLOR: There is some encouragement for buffer strips. We're very glad of that. Also, some encouragement for making more land available to the Conservation Reserve. But there are some factors going against it. But a buffer strip -- very important.

First, when we do have water wash off of the fields that have agricultural chemicals, there was a concern that we just don't want those chemicals intended for the field to end up in the stream, where they're not intended to be. So a buffer strip, something where there's plants that can absorb and utilize and allow those chemicals to change their form, to deteriorate, if you will, before the water gets into the stream. And then it does so in a more pure state.

So a buffer strip -- a wide strip much grass or of bushes -- to -- on the sides of streams, rather than have corn or soybean or some other crop planted right up to the bank's edge. By having that strip of grass, it helps a great deal.

PHILLIPS: Well, now I understand the Feds are even going to pay you and the farmers to help do that, put those buffer strips back in, replant the grass and the prairies to prevent something like this.

Elwynn Taylor, appreciate your insights.

TAYLOR: Well thank you very much. This is a rather new program to try to encourage these things. And, yes, we do need to compensate the farmer for giving up land that he could raise a profitable crops on, to something that has a conservation issue. And if we think about how much it costs to clean up after a flood, as well as all the untold hardship, it's a good investment to lease some of the land, as it were, for these conservation practices.

PHILLIPS: Point well made, Professor.

Good to see you. Thanks again.

TAYLOR: Great to be with you.

LEMON: We're going to continue here with our flooding team. We've got reporters and cameras all over the flood areas, the effected zones in the Midwest. But your pictures are also crucial to our coverage. This man right here can absolutely attest to that. So once we figured out that we were getting such great I-Reports -- we turn to our Josh Levs to take a look at all of them.

What do you have now, Josh?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These pictures are incredible. And what I do is I look at some of the photographs that are getting the most traffic on ireport.com.

We're going to start right here. This is an area called Gregory Landing. It's from Canton, Missouri; it's in the northeast part of the state, an area that is really getting flooded out. Let's see if we can close in -- and the man who took this, his name is Johnny Lee Walker (ph).

Johnny, are you joining us now?

I guess not. Instead I'm hearing a busy signal.

I'll tell you what he told me. This area -- we can take it full (ph) in the control room -- this area is not supposed to have any water at all. Everything you're seeing in these photos is water from this area in Missouri. We're getting absolutely just smothered in water -- what's supposed to be an area full of crops.

Let's go through some more pictures if we can, if you have those there.

Bridge to nowhere. The same idea. This is supposed to be a bridge leading to a road. Instead what your seeing is a bridge leading to water. No one should drive down that bridge at all. Again in Canton, Missouri. These are amazing thing because you're seeing everyday places that people drive that now don't exist anymore because they've become under the water.

Let's go through a few more photos that we've gotten from this area in Canton, Missouri. And what you're going to see -- everyday roads that people drive along. It's the same thing. This is a small town. So if you think about the devastation to the cities where many people live -- a lot of focus there -- the truth is the people in these small towns losing homes, neighborhoods, livelihoods, some families having to flee, some deciding they're never going to be able to come back.

The last thing I wanted to show you, though, is a little bit of feel good. I want to show you the diversity. He tells me this whole town is turning out to help. We've got pictures here of sandbaggers joined together, people of all ages, all backgrounds, coming together to help out. And I think we have some more of these photos, too . But, as you go through these photos on ireport.com you really can't miss it.

And I believe Johnny Walker is with us now.

Johnny, are you here?

VOICE OF JOHNNY LEE WALKER, IREPORTER: Yes.

LEVS: Great, well what we're doing now is we're looking at some photos of people -- actually, we're looking at this washed out road that looks like it doesn't even exist anymore.

You're telling me really, your small town there has been totally devastated right?

WALKER: No. Canton -- so far our levee is holding. Most of these pictures are taken --we've taken pictures of the -- levees inside Canton. The picture I believe -- is it the one with the bridge?

LEVS: You're right. Not your town -- I'm sorry -- but Gregory Landing area where the crops are. We've been looking at those pictures. And we've been looking at the washed out bridge -- that area.

WALKER: That area used to have roughly 8,000 crops planted -- 8,000 acres, excuse me, of crops planted there. So it didn't used to be water in that area.

LEVS: So this is some real devastation to the people who are in that area -- the Gregory Landing area.

Quickly, before I let you go, talk to me about these pictures of the sandbaggers that we have. People coming together. You were telling me it was really the whole town. It seemed like everybody was coming out.

WALKER: It's even more than the whole town. We have people outside of the area. Some people from at least 100 miles away that I'm aware of that come to help the city of Canton and to help other areas in northeast Missouri.

LEVS: Wow, this is really amazing.

Listen, I appreciate that you joined us. Keep on sending those photos.

If anyone wants to know how to do it you can just go to CNN.com and click on i-reports, or go straight to ireport.com, skip a few steps.

Don, we're getting hundreds. They're literally coming in by the hour. Photos, videos, and powerful stories like that about Gregory Landing where you can really hear about devastation, people losing livelihoods, crops. It's awful.

LEMON: Yes. We've been saying this all along, our thoughts and our prayers go out to these people. It's amazing if you look at the picture that you have on the monitor. That just about says it all.

LEVS: It does. It says it all -- people suffering.

LEMON: Hey Josh, thank you.

So -- stand here with me because we want to get you to some new video.

We told you that the president was touring this devastated area here. There you see him getting a briefing from officials. This is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. New video sent into the CNN NEWSROOM. You saw -- about 12:30 Eastern -- that he flew into the airport there in Cedar Rapids.

The president obviously concerned about the situation there. And I can't see because of the shadow -- I believe that is the first lady to -- no, it's not -- to his right, there's obviously a shadow over his face. Didn't see it there. But again, he's getting briefed from officials on the ground there. He has been also talking to some other folks who are there and the people who are devastated.

So, the president touring the zone today. And obviously, a little bit later he will probably talk to some of the people there.

Many of the people, of course, Kyra, are hoping that there is some sort of lesson in all this that the president learned, that the government learned, in response after Hurricane Katrina.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's been almost three years since Hurricane Katrina, Don. And wait until you hear what is just now arriving in Louisiana. CNN special investigations unit reporter, Abbie Boudreau, is going to join us at 3:30 p.m. Eastern with the details from that.

LEMON: She's found herself the target of her husband's fiercest critics. Now Michelle Obama is stepping out front and center in an effort to define her image. PHILLIPS: John McCain's wife, Cindy, is in Vietnam this week. She's talking one-on-one with our John King. We're going to have that interview, including her comments about Michelle Obama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The Obama camp says Michelle Obama has gotten a bum rap from the media and from her critics.

CNN's Jessica Yellin reports on an effort to reintroduce Americans to the woman who could be the next first lady.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Michelle Obama, fist bumping with the ladies on the view.

MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: I have to be greeted properly. Fist bump, please.

YELLIN: And dishing about her husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he give you any advice for the show? Because he was on this show.

M. OBAMA: Be good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No pressure.

YELLIN: Her appearance on "The View," along with this cover story about her marriage, is part of the campaign's efforts to let us get to know Michelle Obama better, and to get ahead of conservative attacks they know are coming.

Senior adviser and Obama best friend, Valerie Jarrett.

VALERIE JARRETT, OBAMA FOR AMERICA SR. ADVISER: If it's not accurate, we're going to correct it, and we're going to correct it immediately. We've seen -- these insidious e-mails that go around, and I think the sense is it's time to stop all that and to call them on the carpet when it's done.

YELLIN: They'll do it by putting Michelle on center stage.

Today, in fact, she explains this statement that's been dogging her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. OBAMA: For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: It went viral on conservative Web sites. M. OBAMA: Just let me tell you, of course I'm proud of my country. Nowhere but in America could my story be possible. I mean, I'm a girl who grew up -- I'm a girl that grew up on the South Side of Chicago. My father was a working class guy.

YELLIN: The critics aren't just attacking her patriotism; they called her elitist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. OBAMA: Barack will never allow you to go back it your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: They say she's negative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. OBAMA: You are more easily led by fear. It is easier to live in your own fear when you're struggling every day. And the problem with fear is that it has cut us off from one another in our own families and our communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: They say she's angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. OBAMA: Every step of the way in my life, and so many of you out there, have been told, no, don't, you can't, wait, we're not ready, wait your turn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: But the fact is, Michelle Obama has been trying to reach struggling and working class women. She intends all this as a message of inspiration. The campaign insists for every conservative troubled by these words, there are voters, often women, who respond.

JARRETT: I think that Michelle makes it safer to talk about things. She talks about things maybe that haven't been said before but have been felt. And -- there are so many women, I think, who feel that their voices haven't been heard.

YELLIN: The campaign says they're beefing up Mrs. Obama's staff, and they say she'll refine her stump speech. But they insist they're not looking to soften her message. They say, she keeps it real.

M. OBAMA: I think maybe the challenge that I have, to the extent that it's a strength or a weakness, is that I wear my heart on my sleeve, just like all of you guys. And at some level, when you put your heart out there, there is a level of passion that you feel. It's a risk that you take. YELLIN (on camera): A senior campaign aide tells me they're going it beef up Mrs. Obama's staff to give her a team of what they call political veterans who are seasoned at rapid response. This person says the team will be unprecedented for the spouse of the candidate.

Jessica Yellin, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: John McCain's wife, Cindy, is in Vietnam this week working with a charity that helps children born with facial deformitise.

Our John King is traveling with her, and they actually took a few minutes to sit down to talk about the presidential campaign and some of the headlines that she's made in her role as a candidate's wife.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Under pressure from the Democrats, your husband had said adamantly, for a long time, your financial life was separate from his. You wouldn't release your taxes. Then you were forced, under political pressure, to release the summary. Did you all like that?

CINDY MCCAIN, WIFE OF JOHN MCCAIN: It wasn't the Democrats that forced it. I felt that if it was that important to the American people and there was a discussion, I said, OK, I will. Sure I had said now, but the American people said, we really think we should see. And I said, OK.

ROBERTS: And now the Democrats are raising a stink about your husband's use of your family jet at a time his campaign was short on money.

Is that a relevant question, or is that silly season?

C. MCCAIN: It's a relevant question. The rules are very clear, actually. And if you notice today, there was a discussion from three or four different attorneys backing up our discussion and our understanding of the law.

It's -- we'll see. We'll see where this takes us. But our understanding, and from what our attorneys have said, the law was clear. And our use of it was very appropriate.

KING: You say spouses should not be the issue, the candidates are the ones who would be president. You did step forward at one point in the campaign when Mrs. Obama had said, for the first time she was proud of her country. You did step forward and say, well I've always been proud of my country.

You saw a reason to say that, didn't you? Some political opening?

C. MCCAIN: No, it wasn't a political opening. There was nothing It planned.

It was -- I'm just an emotional woman when it comes to service to our country. I've watched many people's children leave and go serve. This is something that is the fiber of the McCain family. It was nothing more than me just saying, look, I believe in this country so strongly. I think she's a fine woman. She's a good mother and -- we both are in an interesting line of work right now.

KING: Mrs. McCain also told us that back when they were dating, her future husband used humor to describe his more than five years of captivity here during the Vietnam War and that she did not learn the details of the beatings and the torture he endured until years later when he was writing his autobiography.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. John King, thanks so much.

You can see much more of his interview with Cindy McCain coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. That's at 4:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

LEMON: Planes, trains and of course automobiles. Two of those cost a whole lot more now due to rising gas prices. We'll talk about the other one in today's energy fix segment.

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LEMON: All right. It's time now for our energy fix. With gas prices above $4 in many areas and airfares sky high, many people are searching for an energy fix. Some are climbing aboard with new bills in Congress that include a lot more funding for Amtrak.

A lot more funding for Amtrak, really?

CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our energy fix from New York.

Why is Amtrak getting more money?

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I know, Don. It's a little surprising to me too.

But when flying is so expensive, more and more of a hassle every day, and driving is really expensive, there are a lot of compelling reasons you may want to jump aboard a train. In fact, the number of people traveling on Amtrak hit an all-time high last month. Take a look at those numbers up there, that as gas prices rise. Now, nearly 26 million people road the rails in the United States last year.

And earlier this morning, Don, I had a chance to speak with a New Jersey senator, Frank Lautenberg. He sponsors that bill you were talking about, calling for a more than $11 billion investment in Amtrak over the next few years. He thinks rail travel is a very good energy fix. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: If we can make the system more efficient, make it better used, I think that it's fair to say that prices should come down. That's something we're going to watch very carefully. We can't push people into a system that's going to cost them a lot more money to travel. But on balance, I must say tell you this -- it typically costs less than a reserved air flight, it costs less than a single person or two traveling in a car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: He's got some points there. Lautenberg also says it is a greener option. And the Energy Department says Amtrak uses 17 percent less energy than domestic airline travel on a passenger per mile basis, and, Don, uses 21 percent less energy than driving.

LEMON: OK. So Poppy, here's the question. Living in the northeast and riding a lot of Amtrak back and forth from New York, Washington, Philadelphia -- Amtrak is widely criticized. And many believe it's bloated, there's bloated bureaucracy, that it wastes ton of money, it operates inefficiently and on and on.

HARLOW: You are exactly right. There is a laundry list of criticism against Amtrak.

But despite all of that, Lautenberg says if you put more money into Amtrak it will operate better, a lot like what we see in Europe where so many people take the train.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAUTENBERG: People are begging to get alternatives to being in the car, stuck in the car, or delayed on a flight. So I think that we ought to try to replicate what we see in Europe. I don't know that we can come that close. But they have spent billions and billions more each and every year. We've been parsimonious in the way we treat rails, but we've spent plenty of money on aviation and highways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Yes, we certainly do.

The House version of that bill by an overwhelming majority, but President Bush is threatening a veto. He wants to drill more for domestic oil. He finds the funding of the bill is too high. Now, the House version and the Senate version both have enough votes to override a veto. But of course, they call for different levels of funding, Don. And you know what that means --

LEMON: What does it mean?

HARLOW: Compromise must be reached in Washington. Not always easy to come by.

LEMON: Oh, really? HARLOW: No. I don't think so.

I interviewed Lautenberg. It was a pretty long interview. You can see the rest on our Web site, right there at the bottom of your screen, CNNMoney.com.

LEMON: That's half the trick -- CNNMoney.com. Every time I see that, I get tripped up -- CNNMoney.com.

HARLOW: You just have to practice in your free time.

LEMON: Can't I just say Poppy Harlow?

All right, Poppy. Thank you very much for our energy fix.

Let's talk now about the flooding. Another levee breached, and even more threatened. We'll have the very latest on the Midwest flooding.

And they've managed millions for a major brokerage firm. Today, they are accused of misleading investors. The accusations and counter-accusations -- that's straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Also, boys will be boys, right?

But boy oh boy, is this boy in trouble. Parents, you'll hide your car keys when you find out why.

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