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Campbell Brown

Hurricane Gustav Hits Louisiana

Aired September 01, 2008 - 19:00   ET

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

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf. Thanks very much. Wolf is right. We do have a breaking news special to bring you all the very latest on Hurricane Gustav. We've been tracking it for you all day today. All eyes on Gustav. Here's the very latest. FEMA telling us that parts of southern Louisiana are in grave danger, still amid fears that the levees could break at any moment.
Gustav slammed into the Gulf Coast this morning as it is still battering at this hour parts of the state with winds as high as 80 miles per hour. Nearly two million people have fled the storm, half a million homes and businesses are without power tonight. At this moment, Plaquemines Parish is being evacuated. That's just on the edge of New Orleans proper.

Officials there afraid a levee is about to give way in Plaquemines Parish. We've got reporters throughout the path of the storm tonight with minute by minute coverage. If you've got family stranded in an airport right now, also we should mention they can get the very latest from our CNN airport network. And for anybody in the path of the storm, we are on XM satellite radio.

Meanwhile, the other big story of the day is coming out of Minnesota. The Republican Convention already scaled down now and the shadow of Gustav was rocked today by news that vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and planning to marry her high school boyfriend. And the more Palin and McCain say about it, the more questions they raise.

When did John McCain find out? Was Sarah Palin honest with him? This is not the kind of news that you necessarily want at the start of a convention that has already been thrown sort of off balance by the hurricane. We're going to have reaction to that and a whole lot more right here in the Election Center tonight.

But first, let's get the very latest from Gary Tuchman. He's reporting for us from the storm, from New Orleans in the French Quarter. We've also got Chad Myers. He's been tracking it from the CNN Severe Weather Center in Atlanta. Gary, why don't you start again?

I know FEMA warning parts of southern Louisiana, as we said before, quote, "in grave danger" because of flooding. Help us understand what's really going on.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a critical point to make, Campbell, and that is three years ago, three years and three days ago to be precise when Hurricane Katrina came through, the levee break occurred after the worst of Hurricane Katrina came through here, the worst levee breaks occurred after the worst of the winds and the worst of the rain were over.

So authorities are worried that people are going to start coming back and they say these levees are still very vulnerable. A case in point you mentioned a short time ago, Plaquemines Parish, it's behind me to the south. It's south of New Orleans right along the coast. It's a very hard place to get to because there's one street in and one street out.

And a levee is near complete failure, according to the Parish president, so they're feverishly working now to pile sandbags, to protect the levee from overtaking Plaquemines Parish. Now most of the people have left Plaquemines Parish like most of the people have left here in the city of New Orleans.

Amazing, the population of New Orleans right now used to be 440,000 people before Katrina. Now it's estimated between 220,000 and 330, 330,000 the population. There's only about 10,000 people left, according to authorities. The evacuation has been very successful, and same in Plaquemines Parish. Nevertheless, if that levee fails the people who stay there are in great danger. So the parish president is asking them all to get out.

BROWN: And Gary, I know nobody can forget how badly the Ninth Ward was hit during Katrina. You were there in that part of the city earlier today for some of the worst of the storm. Tell us what you saw.

TUCHMAN: That's right. It's such a sad story because the Ninth Ward, you look at it and many parts of it still look like they did three years ago when Katrina came through. You have houses that are damaged, roofs that are off, and then you have entire blocks that don't have anything on them. The houses are gone.

What happened today while we were there, the levee that fail three years ago did not fail today, but down about 10 blocks north of where the levee failed there is a flood wall and water was spurting, was coming through the bottom, was coming through the middle, it was coming over the top. It did not fail at the flood wall, but it shouldn't have been happening.

And portions of the lower Ninth Ward flooded and then on the other side of the wall, Campbell, is the upper Ninth Ward, another area, and there's an industrial area there and it's acres and acres. No houses, but there was significant flooding there up to six feet of water and acres and acres, but it doesn't appear from our naked eye, we couldn't get out there because of the flooding, but it doesn't appear that any houses were inundated, just businesses.

BROWN: All right, Gary Tuchman for us tonight. Gary, stay there. We're going to come back to you a little bit later in the show. We want to check in right now though with Chad Myers in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Chad, give us the very latest. What's going on now, where is the storm at this moment? CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well it's finally letting a little bit go for Baton Rouge, which is just got battered, because at the very end of this track across southern Louisiana the storm turned to the north. It wiggled or wobbled to the north and put Baton Rouge right inside the eye wall, the heaviest winds.

Now it's moving away and so are the heavy rains and so are the heavy winds. And so that's some good news. The big part of the storm that you need to know is that this storm went south of New Orleans, an exact opposite as when Katrina went east of New Orleans with different directional winds.

This storm south of New Orleans hit Houma very hard. Morgan City, New Iberia, Lafayette. Those are the areas here south of New Orleans along Highway 90 that we're going to wake up tomorrow to pictures that aren't going to be very pretty.

But that not nearly as populated down here as the New Orleans metro area there at 1.4 million people. So there's some good news and everybody has to have some bad news. The bad news down here across parts of the south. There's the rain moving away farther to the east, though. We're going to have some tornadoes tonight, only a couple right now.

You see one there, another one underneath it. The big purple boxes we'll be showing you all night long. Storms are spinning as they come on shore. Those storms that spin could produce tornadoes. Here's where it goes. At least it keeps moving.

At least it moves all the way up to the north rather than stopping like Fay did and producing so much rainfall all in one spot. And not only are we working about Goose or Gus (ph), we're (INAUDIBLE) talking about Hanna. Hanna could be a category two storm on Friday anywhere between North Carolina and central Florida. And although there's Ike out there too, the "I" storm, I-k-e. We'll talk about that in the next half hour -- Campbell.

BROWN: All right, we'll talk to you again in a bit, Chad. Thanks. But right now as we mentioned, Gustav still a very dangerous storm. It's moving northwest across Louisiana bringing tropical storm force winds, torrential rain and flooding to areas not covered by the mandatory evacuation around New Orleans. You heard Chad mention Lafayette, Louisiana.

John Zarrella is joining us from there. That's in south central, Louisiana where the worst of the storm did blow through. John, tell us what it looks like there now.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Campbell, it's actually drying out. The wind has subsided and the Emergency Operation Center officials have been telling us that they believe the worst is over. First responders are now going to start getting out.

But they are saying there's a little bit of bad news on the north Lafayette, a report of trees down on several houses. And in one case the tree through a house. First report was of an elderly man had been killed, now they're saying it wasn't an elderly man, but a 27-year-old man was killed when a tree came through his house, 45 percent of the city without power tonight.

But overall, again, the officials are telling us they think they did very well here, at least at first blush, but I want to tell you, Campbell, what you're looking at behind me here is the Vermilion River and it's Vermilion Bay is way down to the south.

And it is water being pushed up the Vermilion River and during the course of the day we have watched this water rise at least five to six feet. It was way down below those sea walls other there on the other side of the bank, Campbell, and now it is all the way up to the grass in some spots and only a foot or two feet from the top of those sea walls, those protective areas along the side of the river there.

But, again, as the water continues to push up, one of the concerns is that the amount of rainfall they had was about three to five inches of rain in a very short period of time here and up to the north of here. So as all this saturated water comes back into the river, concern is that they could see the water rise here even in Lafayette several more feet and in some low-lying areas that could go over the banks in the river.

That's what they're watching very carefully here now. Again, Campbell, 45 percent of the power out in the Lafayette area and reports of one, sadly one fatally -- Campbell.

BROWN: All right. John Zarrella. Flooding is the story now for sure. We're going to be keeping an eye on it. John, thanks very much.

As we mentioned also, no evacuation order for the residents in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but a curfew goes into effect there in a little less than an hour. Two people were killed in Baton Rouge when a tree fell on a house they were staying in.

The couple had actually fled to there to try to escape the hurricane. Gustav's high winds have left downed power lines and debris scattered around the area. Brian Todd is in Baton Rouge for us. He is joining me now.

Brian, I know there have been a lot of power outages. Not as we mentioned a mandatory evacuation for Baton Rouge, so a lot of residents still there. What's the biggest worry now?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The biggest worry Campbell is flooding. The mayor told us just a short time ago that if they got a lot more rain, and he talked about four or five inches an hour, then they were going to be in some real trouble here, but they would think about trying to get some people out of low-lying areas.

They still will not order a mandatory evacuation for Baton Rouge. And people here are just basically riding it out. You did mention the two fatalities in that one house here, so that's been a real, you know, clearly they've been some danger here. I heard Chad mention a while ago that the remnants are -- basically passed through here and that we're getting kind of just the later stages of it.

Just in the last hour we could feel the winds die down here, but we are not out of the woods yet by any means. I'll show you a couple of images. You've got this connector bridge between Baton Rouge and the west bank of the Mississippi and the port of Baton Rouge on the other side.

We were up there a short time ago and really got hammered. Very dangerous up there, although they have been letting vehicles pass up there. It's about 300 feet up the water. You can see some white caps on the Mississippi River. Storm surge still a problem. We're standing up here on a levee. This levee has held up very well for the most part.

I'll walk over here a little bit. You can see some of the tree damage here. The trees here on this levee and next to it have been getting really pounded over the last five hours. That's when we've really gotten the worst of the storm here in Baton Rouge, but as we said, no mandatory evacuations and the mayor and the emergency response officials here are keeping a very close eye on the flooding situation, especially on the eastern parts of this area, the eastern Parishes bordering Baton Rouge. Those are some of the low-lying areas. They're going to have to keep an eye on that and they may have to evacuate some people in those areas, Campbell.

BROWN: All right. Brian Todd for us -- Brian, thanks very much, appreciate it.

Coming up everybody, we're going to have the latest from New Orleans, from the lower Ninth Ward. The neighborhood still hasn't recovered from Katrina three years ago now being flooded by Gustav.

Meanwhile, people holding their breath, how long will the levees hold? At this moment a levee south of New Orleans is threatening to give way. We're keeping a close eye on it.

And next, one story that everybody's talking about. A family trapped in New Orleans with their newborn baby who just had heart surgery. We'll talk to them just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY COLEMAN, EVACUEE, WEST BATON ROUGE COMMUNITY CENTER: We're at the Baton Rouge Community Center, somewhere I never thought I would ever end up. If it wasn't for my grandbaby, I would have stayed home, but after the people calling -- kept calling the house and said we had to get out right away, the only thing I thought about was my grandbabies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Evacuees we have been hearing from them all day today, and now we want to tell you about one of the most moving stories to come out of today's storm. A newborn baby girl at New Orleans Children's Hospital couldn't wait for a life saving heart operation, even though Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on the city and in spite of all of the dangers and all of the uncertainty, doctors operated anyway.

So far, the news is pretty good. And the little girl's parents, Chandelle and Hunter Rougeou, are joining me right now from Children's Hospital. And the little baby, Charlise (ph), is there behind them, I believe. Is that right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.

BROWN: I have to tell you both, I saw -- I woke up very early this morning. I saw both of you on television and the picture of your little girl and it's all I've been able to think about all day today. I was so consumed with, you know, how she was going to do, how you guys were going to hold up during the storm. Tell me how everybody's doing.

HUNTER ROUGEOU, BABY'S FATHER: Everybody's doing really well. They actually moved her chest tubes this moving and started reducing her meds and she opened her eyes for the first time this afternoon right after lunch.

BROWN: She did?

H. ROUGEOU: Yeah, that was the first time she opened them since she went to surgery on Tuesday.

BROWN: Oh, you must be feeling so relieved right now.

H. ROUGEOU: We -- I think we cried when we got back a little bit, just tears of joys of how happy we were of her actually waking up and being -- actually to look into her eyes.

BROWN: Well take me through the day because when I saw you this morning the storm was just starting to hit and you guys were hunkered down there at the hospital. What was the day like for you with the storm looming and you're there with the baby, and hospital staff standing around. Were you guys scared?

H. ROUGEOU: I felt pretty safe in the hospital. They have it so boarded up you can't even tell that it's raining or the wind's blowing from in here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

H. ROUGEOU: Which is really nice and with the generators running and the power on, it was like almost any normal day.

BROWN: Chandelle, what about you? How was it? What was the day like for you?

CHANDELLE ROUGEOU, BABY'S MOTHER: It was fine. I mean every day of course I'm a worrywart about my baby, but they assured me that she was fine and the generators worked great for her, so that was a good relief for me. And as long as she's doing fine, we're doing fine here.

BROWN: And Hunter did you guys ever think about moving the baby or was it just too dangerous?

H. ROUGEOU: She was born on the 18th, and we flew in the 19th. And at that point I think the hurricane was just kind of started getting going and wasn't a full storm yet. But once we got down here and it was going we didn't have any other choice. She needed -- she had to have the surgery within a week or 10 days I think was their window of opportunity.

BROWN: Wow. Have there been other families who are kind of in the same boat there at the hospital stuck with you guys? What's the scene like there?

H. ROUGEOU: The scene I think is pretty calm. Everybody you know seems to get along very well. I think there's a few other babies in here that -- with their families that are here also.

BROWN: And how long is Charlise (ph) supposed to be in the hospital?

H. ROUGEOU: They're saying anywhere from six to eight weeks after surgery and we'll be a week out tomorrow.

BROWN: Wow. I got to ask you, because I know you guys are from Lafayette and Lafayette was hit pretty hard. Have you had anybody who can go check on your house? Do you know if everything's OK?

H. ROUGEOU: At this point, no. We have no cell phone service and my neighbors are actually taking care of my house for us while we were going through all this and I haven't been in contact with anybody from the Lafayette area.

C. ROUGEOU: (INAUDIBLE) worried about the house.

BROWN: Well I'm sure you're going to hear from them soon. Fingers crossed. I know everybody will be praying for you that everything turns out OK and you stay focused on that little baby for now. Thank you so much for coming on and talking to us. We wish you all the very best.

C. ROUGEOU: Thank you.

H. ROUGEOU: Thank you.

BROWN: And coming up, FEMA says that southern Louisiana still is in grave danger. Will the levees hold?

And the news that has rocked the Republican Convention today, Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. When did the McCain campaign find out? And what does it mean in presidential politics? We'll talk about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal just started a news briefing about the hurricane. Let's listen in.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: ... business, what not to do in your home, we strongly encourage people to pay attention to those alerts, pay attention to those warnings. I did go today after our morning briefing, you heard me say I went to the PMAC (ph) Center where we have many of our medical patients that were evacuated there. I also visited the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Headquarters where they are spearheading the search and rescue missions.

I will say -- I want to make an announcement for state employees tomorrow, for our non-essential state employees statewide tomorrow do not report to work given the road hazards, given the lack of power, given the other difficulties reporting to work, we're telling all nonessential state employees not to report to work tomorrow. For essential employees we encourage them to contact their supervisors to get direction.

I want to emphasize we've got a lot of state workers working in shelters, performing critical first responder functions. Obviously we're going to need their assistance tomorrow, so I strongly encourage if you think you might be considered an essential employee, please contact your supervisor. We certainly continue to need their help in the shelters, but for nonessential employees statewide that they should not worry about reporting to work tomorrow.

On a very trivial and personal note, if it makes people feel any better, there is water both -- in both of my offices, in the office in the Capitol as well as here in the EOP, showing that hurricanes play no favorites. Certainly we consider ourselves as a state...

BROWN: That's the governor just a minute ago talking about what he called an unconfirmed report of trouble with a levee in Plaquemines Parish. That was right before we dipped into it. We do know that that area was evacuated amid fears that a levee could break at any moment, so tonight the question is how long can these levees hold?

And Drew Griffin is joining me right now on the telephone. And Drew, tell us what you are seeing there -- tell us where you are, first of all, what you're seeing and whether there is some danger that you can see with regard to the levees.

VOICE OF DREW GRIFFIN: Yeah, I can tell you what happened, Campbell. This is the Canavering Canal (ph), which basically splits St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish and simultaneously as the water was backing up in here, they had problems on both sides. On the St. Bernard side where I am, the levee was eroding underneath some train tracks.

On the other side the levee was overtopping into a subdivision of about 300 homes. So hat happened was because there have been so few emergencies, there were a lot of emergency officials standing around waiting for something to do. They immediately came here with sandbags and shored up the levee on the Plaquemines side and just closed the levee on the St. Bernard side, so the bottom line of this is although there was some minor flooding here, this emergency seems to be over.

They're moving quite a few more sandbags in now, but they will be able to target this area almost immediately. This happened about 90 minutes to two hours ago. And basically the emergency has stopped and these homes are not flooded.

BROWN: And Drew, that's good news, we should say first of all. But I know you've also been following progress on the levees since Katrina and had discovered that for the most part they weren't finished in time. Why? What happened?

GRIFFIN: Well, when Katrina hit they had to spend to much time and so much money rebuilding the levees to what they were when Katrina hit. It took them just an incredible amount of time, so now to improve on that, which everybody believes now or knows was an inadequate level they had to go even beyond that.

Now they have strengthened the levees in many spots, but the actual $13 billion worth of improvements in the 325 miles of levee in New Orleans will not be done until 2011. Last night I reported on the Harvey Canal, which has seen no improvement out -- well in Plaquemines Parish and Jefferson County -- Jefferson Paris, but I was at the Harvey Canal, Campbell, just about an hour ago, in fact I was there when I got the call to come here. And that Harvey Canal, although the water is rising it is nowhere near any threatened level, so that's very good news for the area they call the west bank.

BROWN: All right, Drew Griffin for us. Drew, thanks very much. We're going to come back to you and check in again during our next hour. But let's go now to the CNN Severe Weather Center where Chad Myers has Lieutenant General Russel Honore, whom many of you will recall led the military response to both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and he's also a CNN contributor.

MYERS: Campbell, all day today the general and I -- we've been looking at levees and bayous and you're correcting me because it's not a creek and a stream, it's a ditch...

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: ... and canals, but whatever. Let's first focus on where this little breach was. And it really was an insignificant breach even though it kind of got a little bit of play. Right there Braithwaite, across the river from Belle Chasse. What happened?

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well I think the water that came up from the Gulf put pressure on that and combined with the rain, these are earthen dams. We call them levees, but they're not reinforced to the Corps standard and the water overmatched the levee.

MYERS: It's a hill.

HONORE: Yeah.

MYERS: It's a dirt hill. HONORE: Right.

MYERS: Right? OK and so what happened was that this dirt hill, all the water from the southeast pushed up to this dirt hill and we kind of -- we lost -- we overtopped part of the levee...

HONORE: Right, in the process of trying to sandbag it.

MYERS: What else happened here today? Nothing really?

HONORE: Yeah. The city itself, while there's a big scare on the Industrial Canal, was some over flopping of water...

MYERS: Yeah.

HONORE: ... which at one point in time looked like it was overtopping. I think we got the language straight on that. And the Corps feels right now that the levees are stable, particularly those that protect the Ninth Ward and the part of St. Bernard Parish that is protected by levees in confluence of the Industrial Canal, so unless there's something significantly changed, they have closed the gate of the vicinity of the 17th Street Canal...

MYERS: OK.

HONORE: ... and in that area because there was some rising of the water in Lake Pontchartrain. So when that happens, it triggered a decision point, and now they're using pumps to make sure that they don't get a violation at the 17th Street Canal and on the lakefront.

MYERS: Industrial Canal had some barges break loose earlier today. Are they OK? Are they latched up?

HONORE: The barge has been secured, but there's a couple of old naval vessels in there that the Coast Guard and others are going in to try and make sure they remain secure there. They're against some (inaudible) right now, but unless something changed there and if we've got stable stability in the surge, we're just about past the danger zone here with the exception of things we see going on down here in Plaquemines Parish.

Now to the west is another story because that area hasn't been assessed. Don't know the impact, but if we do get that tidal surge it's going to come in and go back out.

MYERS: Right.

HONORE: Because it's not trapped as it is in the New Orleans area by the levees.

MYERS: Is this a near miss? Is this a big breath of fresh air? Is this better than we thought?

HONORE: Well it's not as bad as Katrina, number one.

MYERS: Yeah. HONORE: Number two, the breath and scope of this storm and the impact on the state right now has shut down oil production.

MYERS: OK.

HONORE: It shut down the port of New Orleans; about $280 million a day go out of the port of New Orleans. There's no tourists in the state of New Orleans...

(CROSSTALK)

HONORE: The capital city of Baton Rouge is on a curfew. In that city is the government and two universities and this thing is going right into the middle of the sugar cane industry.

MYERS: That's what I knew you were going to get to.

HONORE: Which is...

MYERS: Yeah, you bet.

HONORE: ... key to the agriculture production in the state of Louisiana, so this thing long term production, just heard the governor say it may be four, five days before those oil refineries come back online.

MYERS: Oh, sure.

HONORE: This thing is going to have a national impact throughout the state. Then you still have nearly a million and a half people displaced and Close to 900,000 people without power...

MYERS: Wow.

HONORE: ... as we speak. The current assessment from the governor of Louisiana and his power people, it will take up to three weeks to restore power.

We're going to talk to you again in the 8:00 hour. Stay with us. Don't go anywhere.

MYERS: Campbell, the general has a wealth of knowledge that most of us don't think about. He gets it from people he's in contact with.

BROWN: All right. We appreciate it very much. Again, we'll be talk to you guys a little later as well.

We're going to switch gears to the political story that's getting bigger. John McCain's running mate had a family secret but it is out in the open now. Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, felt compelled to announce her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and unmarried. Will it affect the campaign? We'll talk about that.

Plus, we've got an exclusive interview tonight with Democratic nominee Barack Obama who explains why he is dialing back the political attacks today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: On any other day this next political bombshell would have been the day's biggest story. Republican vice presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, today, confirmed her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. An aide to Senator John McCain said the senator knew before, before he asked Palin to be his running mate. Yet, the pregnancy was not announced until today in response to other stories circulating about Governor Palin.

Dana Bash helped confirm the story and she is joining us from the Alaskan delegation of the republican convention in St. Paul with the very latest.

Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Campbell.

Obviously all of us are starting to get to know Sarah Palin for the first time because she was a surprise pick on Friday by John McCain. I've spent I'm here in the Alaska delegation. This is one of the few places on the floor of the convention, perhaps anywhere in the country that really knows Sarah Palin well but even for them, the news today was a surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Behind Sarah Palin at her VP announcement last week, her family. 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, held her 4-month-old daughter. Unknown then, Bristol was hiding a secret. She's 5 months pregnant and intends to keep the baby and marry the father.

John McCain's campaign dropped that bombshell and hurricane Gustav dominated the news. In a statement to reporters, Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, said, "We are proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

Top McCain aides insist to CNN that McCain found out early in Palin's vetting process her teenage daughter was expecting a baby and say Palin, herself, told McCain in a conversation last week.

STEVE SCHMIDT, MCCAIN SENIOR CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Senator McCain knew it probably eventually, you know, would be become public as did Governor Palin. You know, obviously, people would know because she's going to have a baby that she was pregnant.

BASH: McCain advisers say they decided to make the pregnancy known now to dispel rampant and inaccurate internet rumors on liberal blogs like the Daily Coast that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby who has Down syndrome is really Bristol's child. McCain aides insist they got so many calls they decided to get the truth out about Bristol's pregnancy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now Campbell, they got the truth out but they say inside the McCain campaign they really hope Bristol Palin's privacy is respected and, you know, Barack Obama actually said the very same thing today. He said he will repeat as he said before, he believes that candidate families, especially children should be off limits.

I have to tell you talking to people here, obviously they are supporters of Sarah Palin and John McCain but in general in terms of this issue, it's very interesting. Obviously one of the reasons why Senator McCain chose Sarah Palin we know now is because she's staunchly socially conservative. One of the things we heard today, this is a decision her family made to keep the baby. That is why we're hearing from social conservatives and leaders and even activists here on the floor. They're continuing to rally behind her even with this surprising news.

BROWN: All right. Dana Bash for us tonight. Dana, thanks.

The republican convention was scaled back in the wake of Gustav but Laura Bush was one of the headline speakers today. Here's a little about what she said about the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA BUSH: Events on the gulf coast region changed the focus of our attention. And our first priority, now, today is to ensure the safety and the well being of those living in the gulf coast region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: John King's here now with more from day one of the convention.

And, John, I think clearly republicans are monitoring the hurricane. They want to make sure their convention strikes the right tone here. What can we expect over the next couple days? What are you hearing about plans?

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're in a meeting right now Campbell to decide what to do about tomorrow. I am told that they do plan on going forward with more of a political convention, more of a political agenda.

I was told heading into this meeting exactly what we still don't know. Among the key questions, do you start speeches that would bash Barack Obama in this climate? They want to wait and see. They think the storm turned out to be less than anticipated even thought property damage but in terms of life and like they think essentially the gulf coast has dodged a major disaster here. They want to get a few more assessments on that. We're told to expect more likely of a political program tomorrow. One of the questions as they make those decisions Campbell is, should they have President Bush address the convention? He will not travel here tomorrow. He would have been the big story tonight on opening night of the convention. He will not travel here tomorrow but it's possible if the convention and meaning Senator McCain asks, the president would address the convention by satellite tomorrow.

BROWN: And John, I do want to talk a little bit about Sarah Palin. She had an impressive debut on Friday. The past couple days have been rough. I know she's going to have a platform in St. Paul. How are they thinking about reintroducing her now?

KING: I asked a top McCain adviser earlier today when would she sit down for interviews and I did not get a direct answer. They understand the McCain campaign and they understand here in the convention hall. They are rallying around her. They support her. There's a great deal of energy and enthusiasm for this pick. Make no mistake about it but because of these headlines, they also know that the country at large and even many republicans who believe this race is very competitive, now, they have chance to win want to be reassured. They want to see her out in public not just giving a big speech here on Wednesday or Thursday night. They want to see her at the delegation breakfast. They want to see her out in public. They need to be reassured these republican activists as much as they believe it's critical that she reassures the public at large that she's up to this challenge and up to the job of being vice president.

BROWN: All right. John King for us. We're going to have much more on this story with our political panel and will also be hearing from the campaign hopefully shortly as well. John King for us from the convention. John, appreciate it.

We're going to take a quick break.

Actually, we're not going to take a break. We're going to go to our panel now for more on this. Let me bring in David Brody, who I believe is joining us along with Gloria Borger. Is that right? And John King sticking around as well. Sorry. We had to shift gear there is a little bit. We are having some satellite issues but thanks for jumping in.

I now have the best political team on television with me.

And Gloria, let me start with you. A very personal situation for a family, a young teenage girl here but this is a political stunner as far as news goes. Palin has been on the national stage for a few days now. Talk to me about the impact this announcement is likely to have.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well as John was saying on the floor of this convention and among cultural conservatives this is a very reaffirming story for them. This is a young woman who's been embraced by her family. She got pregnant out of wedlock and her family said we love you and we want you to have the child and she is going -- clearly going to do that, made that decision to do that. For cultural conservatives, the base of the party, evangelical conservatives, it's just fine.

On the political side, Campbell, there are lots of questions that are being raised. Not so much about the story, itself, but the questions about how much do we really know about Governor Palin? How was this vetting process? The McCain campaign knew about this beforehand but they leaked they just it out today. Why did that occur? What else is there that we don't know?

I think there's a little bit of unease among sort of the political cognizance, if you will, what is there about this relative newcomer to the national scene that we don't know and that we're going to learn? They're afraid of a drip, drip, drip effect but you know, at this point they're a little uneasy.

BROWN: Let me bring in David Gergen, who just joined me here in New York. Gloria was mentioning what possible questions this may raise for the vetting process of Governor Palin and how extensive it was and what the campaign knew.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Campbell, as we discussed Friday night, there are two vetting processes in the American politics. One is by the candidate and the other by the press. It's not clear how much the candidate knew at the time. Probably, you know, the fact that he only met her once before last week I think is startling a lot of people. As we talked about the press is going to do a serious vetting included in that he's not going o be looking at her family, I think there's a crying quality to that. There's going to be, as John King said, people are going to want to sit down and talk to her and have interviews. The speech this week which will be watched by a lot of people to the press will be less important than the opportunity to sit down and have real conversations about the state of the country, where we're going and her background.

BROWN: Do you think that's risky for her at this stage given what you know?

GERGEN: Absolutely. She's never been on a Sunday talk show. She's extremely talented. I think her reputation is, she's fast on her feet. She's perky. She's going to be appealing to blue collar workers. There are going to questions about her background. Question, for example, a lot of people want to know how much has she traveled? This is after all, the vice presidency. The presidency itself is a globalized world. There are reports she's traveled very little. There are more facts to know. I think the problem for the candidate is, there's going to be a vetting and some bumps. Every family has issues. We all know that.

BROWN: I want to ask our panel to stand by for a minute. We have Tucker Bounds joining us who is a spokesman for the McCain campaign. We want to have an opportunity to talk to him a little bit about this.

And, Tucker, you there?

TUCKER BOUNDS, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: Yeah, Campbell. Can you hear me?

BROWN: Good. Yeah. We got you in the chair. I'm glad you're with us. Thanks so much for taking time and joining us tonight. I want to begin by asking, you know, what we've been discussing before you sat in the chair, Governor Palin sharing a difficult personal story today, the news her unmarried teenage daughter is pregnant. She plans to have the baby, to marry the father. Explain to us when John McCain first learned about this.

BOUNDS: He learned about it during the vetting process before his selection. He did not consider it a disqualifier. Governor Palin has a long record of reforming Alaska, taking on the establishment for 13 years. She started out as a civic activist in the PTA, went to the city counsel, on to the mayor of her small town, took on big oil in the oil and gas commission in Alaska then to the governor's office where she's made serious bipartisan reforms. That's the reason she was selected. Certainly her personal family matters never disqualified her from serving public office, serving a higher office in a cause greater than herself. That's John McCain's message. She fits it perfectly and we're happy to have her.

BROWN: Tucker, though, this obviously putting this young woman, Bristol Palin, smack in the media spotlight at what's already got to be a very challenging time in her life, I mean, how do you respond to people who wonder why her mother would have subjected her to this kind of scrutiny by accepting this high-profile position?

BOUNDS: I think Governor Palin understands that these are serious times. We have serious challenges and it's time to shake up Washington. It was the reason she was happy to take John McCain's invitation to go to Washington, make the changes that Americans needs and Americans depend on. She's an expert on energy. She understands we need an all of the above energy approach that includes the alternatives and the renewable fuels. This is an important decision. I think it's dangerous to confuse her civic decision to get involved and make a difference in the country with a family matter --

BROWN: I understand that. I recognize that. In an ideal world, it would be private. You know, this is a presidential campaign. Nothing is private. The world is watching. And if we, you know, as much as everyone might want to give this young woman her privacy, you know that's not going to happen. And so you do risk putting her through an incredibly difficult process by accepting this job if you're her mother. You can't deny that, right?

BOUNDS: The Palin family made clear in their statement that they were hoping and continue to hope that this will be a private family matter. That was their intention from the very beginning. Media inquiries and attention are going to happen in the campaign. They understand that. It's important for us as we have a conversation with voters of how we can change Washington, how we can move forward and take on the big challenges that Americans expect of their public officials that we keep a private matter private among their family. Certainly all of us, certainly the members of the media would expect that from Americans. That's the way we're proceeding.

BROWN: Tucker, foreign policy experience has been a huge issue in this campaign because you guys made it a big issue, pointing out John McCain has far more experience than Barack Obama and nothing in your view is more important than the campaign. I don't have to tell you there's a feeling out there by some that you're not holding your VP pick to your own standard, the standard you define. So explain to us why you think Governor Palin is ready to be commander in chief. BOUNDS: Governor Palin has the good fortune of being on ticket with John McCain who there is no question is the most experienced and shown proven judgment on the international stage. He understands foreign affairs.

BROWN: We know all that about John McCain, Tucker. I asked you about her. We all know the role of the VP as John McCain defined it is to be able to step into the job of the presidency on day one. I'm asking you about her foreign policy experience.

BOUNDS: Yeah, Campbell, there are a number of people supporting Barack Obama's candidacy and feel he's experienced enough to take on the oval office. Our feeling is --

BROWN: You're not answering my question --

BOUNDS: Just as much experience as Barack Obama.

BROWN: OK. So does she -- you -- what I'm saying is that you set a different standard by arguing how important it was with John McCain. No one's arguing with you he has much more experience than Barack Obama, so I'm trying to get someone from the campaign to explain to me what foreign policy experience or qualifications she has that would allow her to be ready to be commander in chief if something should happen to Senator McCain.

BOUNDS: Well, Campbell, let me be clear. I don't think there should be problem explaining her experience. She has executive state level experience. She's been in public office reforming Washington. She's been in executive office longer and in a more effective sense than Barack Obama's been in the United States senate. She's been the commander of the National Guard of the Alaska National Guard that's been deployed overseas. That's foreign policy experience.

BROWN: If I can interrupt for one second because I've heard you guys say this a lot. Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard, just one?

BOUNDS: Yeah. She's made -- any decision she has made as the commander of the National Guard that's deployed overseas is more of a decision Barack Obama's been making as he's been running for the president for the last two years.

BROWN: So tell me. Tell me. Give me an example of one of those decisions. I'm curious, just one decision she mad in her capacity as commander in chief of the National Guard.

BOUNDS: Campbell, certainly you don't mean to belittle, every experience, every judgment she makes as commander --

BROWN: I'm belittling nothing. I want to know one judgment or one decision. I want to know what one decision was. I'm not belittling anything, I am curious.

BOUNDS: As she makes a decision how to equip or how to command the national guard in Alaska, that is more -- BROWN: But Tucker, those are the Pentagon's decision, that's General Petraeus, that's the White House.

BOUNDS: Pardon me?

BROWN: No governor makes decisions how to equip or deploy the National Guard. When they go to Iraq, those are decisions made by the pentagon.

BOUNDS: Campbell, on factual basis, they certainly do. In Alaska, if I have an emergency in your state, the National Guard is under the command of the governor. That is more of a command role than Barack Obama has ever had. I would argue John McCain and Governor Palin between the two of them have far more command experience in military than either of the candidates on the democratic side.

I do want to argue this is about the top of the ticket. Ultimately when people go into the ballot box and decide between Barack Obama and John McCain, they will decide between John McCain's record of reforming Washington and Barack Obama's rhetoric on the campaign trail, doesn't have a lot of experience, certainly has no command or military experience which both our candidates have. That's an important distinction I think voters will make the right call in November.

BROWN: All right. Tucker, I'm just going to give it to you, baby. We'll end it there.

BOUNDS: Appreciate it.

BROWN: I appreciate you coming on and taking the time to have this debate. I think it's important. People don't know a lot about her. They want to understand her qualifications as much as possible. We're not beating you up here. We're not trying to. We're just trying to educate ourselves and educate our viewers. So I really do appreciate your time and thank you for your time coming on. If I can, Tucker Bounds, if I can bring back our panel in for one second, David Gergen, commander in chief of the National Guard, is that a qualification to be commander in chief of the United States? I'm just asking.

GERGEN: Tucker Bounds does a pretty good job defending his candidate. I must say having been in that role, I understand sometimes you face very tough questioning on things you don't want to talk about. He did a great job.

I think these are exactly the kind of questions that need to be posed. I agree with Barack Obama, we should not be sitting, I do not want to be sitting in judgment on her as a mother. I don't think that's our role. I do think it's fair and appropriate to ask about her role as potential commander in chief, of guiding in a very dangerous world, the most powerful office in the world, one of the most complicated foreign policy situations we've ever had.

The argument Barack Obama is not prepared and therefore should not be president, they have been making now for these months, how do they then turn around and say she is prepared, I think that is a legitimate question to ask.

BROWN: Let me bring in David Brody.

David, you heard Tucker Bounds make the case, it's not about her experience, it's about the top of the ticket. That's what matters but when John McCain is 72 years old, had cancer a number of times and has said frankly himself flat out, it is about a vice president who can step in on day one, are these issues going to go away? Are they able to address them with the points he just made?

DAVID BRODY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: They're clearly on the defensive. Look, this is all going to come down to a couple of things.

First of all, October 2nd, you know Joe Biden verse Sarah Palin. Let's face it. The bar, you want to call it low, maybe it's high, it depends on the way you look at it, but the bottom line is she is going to have to bone up pretty good and she's going to have to be ready to go on October 2nd. It will be very interesting to see.

Look, Campbell, let's call it a reality here. If she can do well in that debate versus Joe Biden, it's big if, I'm sure a lot of people think it is a big if, if she does well, there will be a whole new complexion to this race. People will see, you know what I didn't realize she knew the president of Uzbekistan, or whatever the case maybe. That will be the challenge and between now and October 2nd are key.

BROWN: Gloria, quick thought?

BORGER: I agree. I think Joe Biden has to be careful. Those who know Joe Biden knows he can be pretty cutting and he can belittle someone if he wants to. He has to be careful. The expectations for her are low. That's probably good for her.

I want to go back to the point of how do you introduce her to the American people? I think that's a problem the McCain campaign is having right now. They may be able to rectify it at this convention, when she comes here to St. Paul.

BROWN: All right. Gloria Borger for us and David Gergen here with in New York and David Brody from St. Paul, thanks to everybody, appreciate. It we will have more breaking news from the republican convention.

Thousands of protesters came to St. Paul today, some turned violent, that is coming up next.

Also the hurricane shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and that gulf oil counts for fully one-quarter of the oil production in the U.S. how bad is the damage? Are we in for more bad news at the pump? We'll talk about that.

Also, Barack Obama in an exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper, he responds to republican criticism he's not experienced enough to handle a crisis like hurricane Gustav. We'll talk about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Breaking news from St. Paul tonight. Police say 10,000 people took part in a peaceful protest outside the Republican National Convention. A few dozen caused some trouble and police had to make some arrests. We get the latest from Joe Johns in St. Paul, Minnesota, with all the details.

Joe, what can you tell us?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Campbell.

I can tell you it was not your average day in St. Paul. I haven't spent much time here, I can tell you that. It was not the worst protest or the worst violence you've seen in the United States the last few days either.

What we had here was a very large protest. Authorities said it could have been as many as 10,000 people then a very small number of individuals peeled off from that larger group and started going into the streets and overturning things in the streets. They got into a row with the police because the police of course got mad because they started tearing up police cars and police arrested something like 78 people. There was some type of chemical agent released into the crowd to try to control the crowd. There was also some type of projectiles used by the authorities, may have been beanbags, we've gotten reports of rubber bullets out there.

Again I said 78 people arrested, 22 gross misdemeanors, 18 felonies, a lot of damage to property, glass broken in buildings and that kind of thing. Back to you.

BROWN: All right. Joe Johns for us, keeping an eye on things.