Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Analysis of Sarah Palin's Speech; Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Pleads Guilty, Resigns

Aired September 04, 2008 - 11:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back. You're watching the CNN Election Center in New York.
I'm Soledad O'Brien, here with our continuing coverage of the 2008 Republican convention, which is happening in St. Paul, Minnesota.

They're getting ready for the main event tonight. John McCain accepting the GOP nomination, but it's the opening act that's been getting all the attention this morning. That would be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, his running mate.

Last night, by many estimations, she blew the roof off the joint. Also, some skeptics, though, said where's the substance to go with how she performed?

So let's dig deeper now with Robert Traynham of Comcast and National Public Radio. Hilary Rosen is joining us as well. She's a Democratic strategist and a CNN political contributor.

Robert, let's start with you.

Number one, what did you think of the speech? Number two, for those who said they thought the sarcasm was a little bit tough -- and this came, at least to me, from some supporters -- is that a problem?

ROBERT TRAYNHAM, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Well, it is somewhat of a problem. But let me start off by saying she hit a homerun, bases loaded.

I mean, she just went jib-jab, back and forth with a velvet glove and with high-heeled shoes on. I mean, she really connected with the audience, but even more importantly, she connected with the American people.

She started off by saying, look, I'm a mom, a family person, I'm a hockey mom. And I'm also human and I'm an American.

She also went after Barack Obama pretty strongly last night, and she did it with a forceful smile. She did it with, may I say, a little bit of feminism. She did it in a way that was humanizing, but she also did it in a very, very funny way as well. And I've got to tell you, if I'm the Obama campaign right now, I'm looking at this and saying, oh, my goodness, we have a problem on our hands.

O'BRIEN: Is part of the problem -- there was sort of a little stab at community organizers, Hilary. And I was talking with a McCain spokesman this morning, and she said, well, that wasn't the point of the joke. You know, anybody who thought it was a jab at community organizers, it was not, that that would be misreading it.

But she basically said, you know, being a mayor, you run something. That's much more than a community organizer would do. And the number of e-mails they got from community organizers, who pointed out to me that the theme is country first and they're kind of the people who do the grass-level work, they were mad.

Big misstep or minor misstep that no one's going to talk about tomorrow?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: In the big context, I think it wasn't a joke. It was a political attack. And it framed her had up as somebody being willing to get out there and make political attacks. And so in some respects, you know, the velvet gloves have come off because she has shown herself to be someone who will go on the attack, and now she's going to be someone who has to be prepared for the attacks. I thought...

O'BRIEN: Which is the job of a VP candidate.

ROSEN: Which is that job. And in many respects, she's also going to be held to the same standard anyone else is.

Why is it she went on and on about being an advocate for special needs when she cut special needs funding as governor? Why is she...

O'BRIEN: Yes, I asked the spokesperson that, Robert. Let me go to Robert.

ROSEN: I heard that you didn't get an answer on that.

O'BRIEN: No. That was an interesting thing. She said that she has given her word that she would be an advocate and we just have to take her at her word.

Is that going to be a problem, Robert? You know, because you just have to do the math and you see it was cut -- I think it's like 62 percent. Is that going to rub against the image of a mom who now has a special needs baby?

TRAYNHAM: Well, I'm not sure it's going to be a problem or not, but she definitely made a promise that, I'm going to be an advocate for special needs kids. And look, everyone in the audience, either at home or in the convention hall recognizes that she has an infant child with Down syndrome.

Look, the fact of the matter is, is that the bar was set very low, in my opinion, for Governor Palin prior to her speech. But now the bar has been set very, very high because she is so forceful and so articulate.

The real question becomes, is whether or not she can go into the details and talk about energy policy, talk about cutting taxes, and some of the other things that Senator McCain is running on. The other issue -- and it proves that she did that last night -- is going on the offense when it comes to putting Joe Biden on the defense.

And again, it proved last night that she can do that and she can do it in a very gentle way, but also doing it very swiftly as well. She was forceful, she was energetic, but also, she was very articulate at the same time.

O'BRIEN: Here's what the Obama campaign said in the response to her speech. "It was the same divisive partisan attacks we've heard from George Bush for the last eight years."

Do you think that's a strong enough response, or is that just...

ROSEN: Well, you know, Democrats got pretty partisan last week, too. You know, as a practical matter, we're going into the last eight weeks of the campaign, and there's going to be a lot of back and forth. And I think what we're going to see is much of what came up last night in terms of who Sarah Palin is, and what she stands for is going to end up being brought into question, whether it's health care, whether it's education, whether it's privacy.

You know, she's going to be on the defense about those issues because she's out of the mainstream of where America is. John McCain, the same thing.

You know, I think basically people -- she's an extremely compelling candidate. She's kind of a rock star. And so, you know, they're going to have a hard time blaming Obama for being a rock star.

You know, I think I heard somebody say this morning, "Game on." It's game on now. Everybody's fair game based on where they stand on the issues.

O'BRIEN: Let's ask a final question because we don't have a lot of time.

There is a double standard, I think it's fair to say, for women. I mean, we were talking earlier about an article that parsed how much women had spent, Laura Bush and Cindy McCain, on their outfits. And you're right, they probably would never do that for a man.

How challenging is that going to be for any candidate?

ROSEN: Well, you know, she's going to be held to uniquely different standards, obviously, than Joe Biden and Barack Obama. People are constantly -- she's going to go through a lot of what Hillary Clinton went through, although Hillary Clinton had a lot more experience doing it before she actually got to this level of presidential politics.

But it's going to be the daily comments on the hairdo and the outfit and the, "Was she too shrill? Is she being feminine enough? Is she emphasizing her mom credentials?"

It's an extra burden that she has to have, but guess what? That's why John McCain picked her, because he wanted somebody who was going to distract from some of the other issues and be more of a showpiece.

O'BRIEN: Robert, earlier we were just talking to -- I think it was -- I forget who it was, actually, who said Barack Obama has the same issue. You know, nobody wants to see an angry black man in front of the cameras.

Do you think that in a way they both have this positioning issue, you know, got to walk this narrow line of not offending anybody? You know, being strong but not too strong?

TRAYNHAM: Yes, there's no question about it that they both have a very difficult maze to navigate. Senator Obama, as you mentioned, is an African-American male, so you have to be very careful -- or he has to be careful in terms of how he projects himself. Governor Palin also has the same problem, obviously, being a female.

It's a very difficult maze to navigate simply because the American people have never handled this before on the national level. So it's a comfort level that we all have to get with, with having a vice presidential nominee that's a woman and obviously a presidential nominee that's African-American.

O'BRIEN: Suddenly changing the debate, isn't it?

I want to thank you both, Robert and Hilary. Appreciate it.

ROSEN: Hi, Robert. Bye, Robert.

O'BRIEN: Straight talk ahead and the talk take on Sarah Palin's hard-hitting speech from the hard-hitting Bay Buchanan, right after these short messages.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SARAH PALIN (R-AK), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My mom and dad both worked at the elementary school in our small town. And among the many things I owe them is a simple lesson that I've learned. That this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now to talk about the speech, what Republicans make of it, how the Democrats answered, is Bay Buchanan, GOP strategist and former senior adviser to Mitt Romney.

Nice to see you, Bay. Thanks for talking with us.

BAY BUCHANAN, GOP STRATEGIST: Thank you very much. Always good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Oh, I appreciate that. As a female conservative politician, you have said Palin changes everything. What exactly do you mean by that?

BUCHANAN: I'm sorry. I didn't hear what you said.

O'BRIEN: I can hear the noise behind you. It's so loud. So I'm going to yell.

You had said earlier this week Palin changes everything. What do you mean by that?

BUCHANAN: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: How so?

BUCHANAN: All right. You know, last week, this week party was flat. I wasn't even coming to the convention. People I know weren't sure they were going to vote for McCain.

You know, we know he's a war hero and all, but he wasn't our candidate. No enthusiasm.

Overnight, enormous excitement. I came out here to this convention because of Sarah talking to people in the halls. People agree with me; this is as exciting today, this convention, as the Reagan conventions. That's how thrilled we are. So we now have the base energized as never we could imagine and as never before very likely.

Here you have the history. We now have history on our side too, Soledad.

We know that the Democrats, very impressive, could be the first black president. Good. That is terrific.

Now we have possibly the first woman vice president. So we have history.

But in addition to that, this is a woman that appeals to women across the country. I'm a single mom. I am so proud to have this woman, not just as a conservative, but as a woman, as a conservative, as a nominee on this ticket. It has completely turned things around for us.

I talked to women last night. We could hardly talk we were so excited, so proud to have her up there speaking for us.

O'BRIEN: Let me run a little clip of what she had to say about the media coverage thus far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PALIN: Here's a little news flash for those reporters and commentators. I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Do you think the media coverage of Sarah Palin has been unfair?

BUCHANAN: It's been outrageous. Not just unfair, below any kind of -- I can't believe how low the media has actually gone.

Soledad, I was on CNN three or four times on Friday. And let me tell you a couple of questions.

One, "Do you think because she was a beauty queen this could hurt her?" That's what we're hearing. I'm thinking, oh, you can't be good looking and smart?

And the next thing, she has five children. People are thinking, shouldn't she be at home with them? What is this? Where are they coming?

This is the national media. We know that they would never ask this of a liberal woman, much less a man.

O'BRIEN: You know what's interesting? Let me stop you there for a second, Bay.

You know, what is interesting, a friend of mine who is the editor-in-chief of "Working Mother Magazine" says when she's been polling her readers, the readers themselves have been raising that question. I was surprised by that, too, since I have four children. But she said, you know, there are plenty of women who divide it into two camps.

There's one thing that says, listen, I'm a working mom and I understand how it can be done. And then she said there's another camp that says, as a working mother, I know how hard it is to juggle.

And that surprised me, but that seems to me to be a fair question for someone who wants to be in the number two slot, you know, the second highest in the land.

BUCHANAN: Yes. And you obviously are a working mom. I've been a working mom for now 20 years. And we know how hard it is.

And she knows how hard it is, but she's doing it. And she's doing it with her husband, with the family together, with his support. She's actually been enormously successful both as a mom and as a professional. And that's what's so exciting.

And she's kept her femininity. She's up there, she's not strident, she's not angry, she's not...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: I know it's so noisy behind you, but why is that unfair, then? Why are those questions unfair? I think they're -- they seem to me to be fair questions.

BUCHANAN: Well, I think it's fair to ask women in general what do they think. Is it hard to be a working mom? Can you do it? That type of thing. But to ask this woman and suggest that she should be at home, that's what's unfair. They don't ask that of men. They don't ask it of liberal women.

I didn't hear that being asked of Hillary when she was running fort U.S. Senate. I mean, sure, her daughter was a little older at the time, but you have women who are in the Senate now with younger children. I don't ever hear this.

How about Kathleen Sebelius? This was a woman that was really very much promoted to be on the vice presidential ticket with Obama, and nobody ever suggested that she wasn't qualified because she was just a governor. It's this kind of thing.

They really went after Sarah Palin not because they really believed, in my opinion, that she wasn't qualified or that she should be home, but because she's a dynamic lady who is a conservative woman who really offers so much excitement and appeal to the millions and millions of women who are moms, just moms at home full time, hockey moms or, indeed, who are working moms.

O'BRIEN: Bay Buchanan for us this afternoon.

Nice to see you, Bay. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

That's it for us for now.

Soledad O'Brien at the CNN Election Center in New York. I'll see you back here in about 15 minutes, continuing our nonstop coverage from the convention.

Back to CNN NEWSROOM right after these messages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning again, everyone. You're informed with CNN.

I'm Tony Harris.

Developments keep coming into the CNN NEWSROOM on this Thursday, September 4th.

Here's what's on the rundown for you.

Moments ago, a deal in Detroit. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleads guilty to two felonies, a sex scandal forcing him from office and into a jail cell.

Hanna turns toward the U.S., while Ike grows into a fierce hurricane. Parts of the Caribbean flooded by weeks of tropical weather.

The measles vaccine, is there a link to autism? A new study every parent needs to know about -- in the NEWSROOM. And new this morning, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigning after agreeing to a plea deal in a sex scandal. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony obstruction charges last hour. He will serve four months in jail, five years probation, and pay $1 million in restitution.

Kilpatrick was accused of lying about an affair with a former top aide, Christine Beatty. Beatty also faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Joining me on the phone now with more on the Kilpatrick decision, Jim Schaefer of "The Detroit Free News" (sic). He is one of the reporters -- "Detroit Free Press" -- he is one of the reporters who broke the story about salacious text messages between Kilpatrick and his then top aide.

Jim, good to talk to you. Are you surprised by this morning's guilty plea?

JIM SCHAEFER, "DETROIT FREE PRESS": No. This is something that's been speculated for weeks.

I guess it was interesting to see it finally confirmed. We knew the mayor and his lawyers have been negotiating with prosecutors on separate criminal cases for a number of days.

Last night, the negotiations went into the early morning hours, and just this morning it took them another 90 minutes just do hammer out all the details of this plea agreement. But finally it's on the record. Mayor Kilpatrick is going to resign. And as you stated, spend about four months in jail.

HARRIS: Yes. Hey, Jim, I remember features and profiles touting Kilpatrick as the future. What happened and how staggering a fall is this?

SCHAEFER: This is a sad day in Detroit. You know, Kilpatrick was an up and coming member of the Democratic Party, he was a very charismatic young politician who, in fact, was elected to the mayorship of Detroit at 32, the youngest mayor ever in the city's history. Now he has the distinction of being the only sitting mayor charged and convicted of a crime.

HARRIS: Jim, what's next for the city of Detroit? Who takes over, and is that person respected?

SCHAEFER: Yes. The council president, a gentleman by the name of Ken Cockrel, Jr., is taking over. The transition officially will happen two weeks from today. But he's been planning this transition for months now.

You know, we first broke this story in January, then the scandal immediately erupted. And just a huge controversy in Detroit. The prosecutor weighed in after our investigation and charged the mayor with eight felonies related to perjury from a trial last year. Ken Cockrel, Jr. is a lifelong Detroiter whose father was involved in civil rights litigation and is a lawyer in the city. So his name is very well known. And he's sort of seen as a stabilizing force in the city right now.

HARRIS: And Jim, I'm going to ask you for a quick answer on this, if you can give me one. What went wrong for Kwame Kilpatrick? Why are we looking and facing down this day?

SCHAEFER: You know, if you talk to his advisors, the people close to him, they point to, you know, just assuming a position that he -- that people placed a lot of hope in him to carry off with great dignity and efficiency, and it turned out that something went to his head. You know?

HARRIS: Yes.

SCHAEFER: Nobody can really pinpoint exactly what happened here other than a sense of entitlement, his critics say, and, you know, they don't understand how all this good potential was just thrown away.

HARRIS: OK. Jim Schaefer is with us. He's with "The Detroit Free Press."

Jim, thanks for the time, as always, and thanks for your help in covering the story.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So in your "Daily Dose" of medical news, no link found between the measles vaccine and autism, that's according to a new study. Want to find out more about this. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now.

Elizabeth, more of the findings here from this study. This is very interesting and compelling for a lot of parents.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, because this has been so hotly debated.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

COHEN: So many people have felt so passionately that vaccines are linked to autism, especially the measles, mumps rubella vaccine.

HARRIS: That's right.

COHEN: And that's what they studied here. And what they found, in a nutshell, is that the kids they looked at with autism, they had signs of autism in some of the gastrointestinal issues that come with it before they were vaccinated. So, the results -- the conclusions of the studies are there is no link, and in fact, one autism group says this really puts the issue to bed, there is no link. HARRIS: No, no, no, no, no. It never puts the issue to bed. There's always the other side of the debate.

COHEN: Always.

HARRIS: And I'm just sort of interested at what that other side is saying about this.

COHEN: The other side is saying that this study was not designed to answer the question of whether there was a link, that it was poorly done. They said it raises more questions than it answers.

HARRIS: What are the ramifications of this, more kids being vaccinated?

COHEN: Well, the problem is that fewer kids...

HARRIS: Fewer?

COHEN: Fewer kids are getting vaccinated for MMR, for measles, mumps, rubella, because people are scared there's a link to autism. And the CDC says that the number of kids getting measles has gone way up. It's more than doubled this year compared to other years.

Between January and July of 2008, 131 cases -- 112 of those 131 kids, they weren't vaccinated, or they aren't sure if they weren't vaccinated. But as you can see, if your child doesn't get vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, there is a chance that they will get the disease.

HARRIS: Well, that's the question then. So, is the potential that you get a study like this and findings of the study, and maybe parents begin to have more confidence in the vaccines again?

COHEN: It will be interesting to see what parents' reaction is to this study. Will they continue, some parents, to have this distrust? Or will they trust it more? It will be interesting to see.

HARRIS: Yes. Elizabeth, good to see you.

COHEN: Good to see you.

HARRIS: And he lays out his vision for America tonight. It's John McCain's big night. Our Soledad O'Brien keeping us updated on the Republican National Convention.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Good morning once again. From the CNN Election Center in New York, I'm Soledad O'Brien, with continuing coverage of the 2008 Republican convention which is happening in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The smoke still clearing after a barn-burning speech last night. Sarah Palin's primetime debut was a very hard-hitting speech. Lots of people say it was great and are talking about it today. Headline news and a front page story, she's the cover story in tomorrow' edition of "Time" magazine, a piece titled "The Education of Sarah Palin."

And part of that education will no doubt deal with business and the economy. Joe Biden today slammed her speech for being strong on style but light on substance. Beyond her mentions of energy prices. With us this morning to talk about more is a Carly Fiorina, senior McCain adviser and of course, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard. Nice to see you, Carly. Thanks for being with us. We certainly appreciate it.

CARLY FIORINA, SENIOR ADVISER, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN: Nice to be with you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You have said that you think that some of the questions that have come Governor Palin's way have been unfair. In what way?

FIORINA: Well, I think it's unfair to suggest, for example, that because she has children she can't be a vice president. I think we would never ask such a question of a man if he were the candidate for vice president. I think it is unfair and frankly sexist to at the same time that you elevate a man's experience that you diminish a woman's experience.

I think some of the things she's been called have been sexist, just as I have said publicly that I think Hillary Clinton was treated in a sexist way as well on some occasions.

O'BRIEN: Do you think it's unfair to investigate someone's experience and ask questions about that?

FIORINA: I don't think it's unfair to examine someone's experience, but I do think it's unfair to examine her experience at a far greater level than, for example, Barack Obama's experience has been examined.

O'BRIEN: And do you think that's the case, that that's been done?

FIORINA: Well, let me just give you an example. Sarah Palin as a mayor and as a governor has made executive decisions. Executive decisions are those for which you are ultimately accountable. Barack Obama has never made an executive decision in his life, and yet it is Barack Obama who is running for president. Sarah Palin, for all the discussion, is the vice presidential candidate of the republican party. So I find it fascinating, all of this discussion about whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president at a fervor and a level that, frankly, in my judgment, has not been asked of Barack Obama.

O'BRIEN: Many questions, I think similar questions, were asked of Joe Biden talking about his experience. And, of course, you know the sidebar to that is the age of the republican candidate, John McCain is 72 years old, which makes him, you know, if he's elected president, he would be the oldest president. Some people think that there is a relevance to the qualifications of someone who's the VP to step immediately, potentially, and god forbid anything happens to anybody, but if something were to happen, could that person step in immediately and be prepared to be president? As people have said, I think, about Joe Biden. You don't see that?

FIORINA: Well, you see, I think most of the discussion about Joe Biden was that he was clearly qualified to be president and that clearly Barack Obama chose Joe Biden because he could step in. And yet Joe Biden, for all of his wonderful service to this nation and for his 30-plus years in Washington, Joe Biden has never made an executive decision.

O'BRIEN: And neither has John McCain.

FIORINA: And I guess I would also say that when people dismiss the experience of a working mother, working mothers all over this country have to juggle work and family all the time and they have to make a lot of very important decisions for their careers and for their families. And somehow that experience is just completely dismissed as relevant. I think a lot of women take offense to that.

O'BRIEN: You know, what's interesting to me was to see some of the polling among working mothers and to see that the issue among women who work and have children, they are actually split on the issue. That some of them feel that it is offensive to have the discussion at all, but others say, as a working mother, I know how hard it is to juggle, and I think - so that surprised me, that it was working mothers who were putting that question forward. Are you surprised by that?

FIORINA: Well, look, I think everyone, every voter, comes to the voting booth with their own perspective in mind and their own life experience in mind. So I think some people, for example, who may not feel in the best of physical health themselves may be more focused on John McCain's age than those of us who know him and realize that he's an incredibly vigorous candidate and that he will serve, I hope, for eight years, not simply four years. I guess my point is that every American voter is going to make up their own mind about what experience they think is relevant and what values they're attracted to. But what is unfair to me and sexist to me is when women are held to a different standard than men are held to. And I think we have seen loads of examples of that around Hillary Clinton, and I think we now see it again around Sarah Palin.

O'BRIEN: Carly Fiorina is the McCain campaign senior adviser. Thanks for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.

FIORINA: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: God and republican politics with Pat Robertson. We'll have that discussion right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We're talking about the republican convention. Sarah Palin and what her presence on the ticket with John McCain now says to Christian conservatives. With us to discuss that this morning is Pat Robertson, the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network. Nice to see you, Mr. Robertson. Thanks for being with us.

PAT ROBERSTON, FOUNDER, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK: Thanks, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: I know you sent out an e-mail recently that said this, the evangelical community, I'm quoting, is not organized this year and does not "have the influence it used to." What do you think is behind that, and do you think it's changing with the selection of Sarah Palin on the VP pick?

ROBERTSON: Soledad, that selection has unified the Evangelicals. It's electrified them. I'm astounded myself with what it's done. But all across the country, all of a sudden people who were lukewarm to McCain are just red-hot for the ticket. I think it was a brilliant move on his part. You know, Soledad, I honestly believe when I heard last night she's the most exciting republican politician since Ronald Reagan. I am astounded at her ability.

O'BRIEN: Do you think the selection of her makes up for those lukewarm feelings, as you call it, for John McCain?

ROBERTSON: Without question. Because this shows who he wants, the kind of person he wants with him, and someone who shares his values. We weren't quite sure what his values were, but now he's saying loud and clear, this is what I want. And we're delighted.

O'BRIEN: What do you think is behind the waning sway, as you called it in your e-mail, that you've seen in the last years?

ROBERTSON: Well, during the Bush administration, I don't believe that the grassroots of the party has been exactly activated. You know, it was like a vacuum cleaner taking money out of the program. I mean, Bush was a great fundraiser, but he got it all for his campaign and as a result the evangelical groups like I headed the Christian Coalition have sort of been allowed to wither on the vine. And so the Evangelicals just weren't excited about any of these candidates. But now they're excited. They honestly, are going to get it to work. This next 60 days are going to be electric.

O'BRIEN: Oh, I tell you, I agree with you on that. It is going to be so interesting to watch. Let me ask you a question. We're going to be busy, you and me.

Let me ask you a question about climate change because you have called for both republicans and democrats to come together to work on this issue. There's a quote from Governor Palin when talking about global warming that says this - I'm not one who attributes it to being manmade. Is that a big stumbling block into solving a problem that most scientists would tell you is manmade?

ROBERTSON: Well, the science is divided on that. I just - you know, I did a spot -- Al Gore called me. He's a friend and he said, would you do a spot for me? So I was on, as you know, with a very interesting figure and we did a spot. But the main thing I was saying is, we need to take care of our environment. We can't pollute the environment. We can't pollute the streams. We can't pollute the air. And we can't be always burning these fossil fuels that are causing all this carbon release in the atmosphere. And I believe that. Now, whether or not it's causing what's known as global warming we're not really sure, but I'm concerned about the planet. We've misused it terribly.

O'BRIEN: Pat Robertson joining us, nice to see you, from Virginia Beach this morning. Appreciate your time.

ROBERTSON: Thanks, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We got more convention coverage in about 15 minutes and throughout the day. In New York, I'm Soledad O'Brien at the CNN Election Center. Back to Atlanta and CNN NEWSROOM right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Storms picking up steam. Tropical storm Hanna expected to reach hurricane strength before hitting the U.S.. It could make landfall over in the North Carolina, South Carolina border as early as tomorrow night. Right now Hanna, hurricane Ike still hundreds of miles from the Caribbean Islands but it's now a dangerous category 4 hurricane. Meteorologist Rob Marciano tracking it all in the Hurricane Center, Rob, good morning.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Tony. We are looking at three storms are lined up. You mentioned two of them. The one in the middle is the most nasty. This is Hurricane Ike with winds of 140, a category 4, between two tropical storms, one close to us, one pretty far. So we're not too worried about Josephine just yet.

So let's break down Hanna, first off, it's got winds of 65 miles an hour. You look at this, you got, my goodness. It really doesn't look like a hurricane of any sorts. If any, it looks like a winter storm, maybe a Nor'Easter. Well, it may very well transition into that. Certainly, the lower part of it doesn't have a lot of convection, but it's starting to flare up here in the western part. And it's picking up steam, northwest moving at 12 miles an hour. So now, it's approaching the southeast coastline. And also the Gulf stream here which is pretty toasty as far as waters go, and it will intensify because of that.

Right now it's got some dry air in there. It's also real big. I mean, tropical force winds extend over 300 miles from the center. So when they're that big, they take a while to get together. That's the good news because the forecast for this is for it not to really get to major hurricane status. At best, at this point, category 1 status, maybe 2. That's possible.

But right now the official forecast gets it at a 1 by tomorrow night, landfall either as a 1 or a strong tropical storm late tomorrow night, into early Saturday, in through the Carolinas. So those folks are prepping no doubt about it. Florida, you won't get that one, but Ike may certainly be on your doorstep by early next week. And right now it's a cat 4. It's forecast to remain a category 3 or major hurricane here over the next several days, and the cone of uncertainty now reaches into south Florida Tuesday morning for potential U.S. landfall there. And here's Josephine just thrown into the mix. Don't want to leave her out. Winds there at 50 miles an hour, but way out there and not expected to terribly get real close to us at least for the time being. Hanna tomorrow night, Saturday morning, Tony, Carolinas and then Ike maybe some problems early next week.

HARRIS: OK. Everybody's forewarned. Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: All right. Tony.

HARRIS: More residents are heading home to the Gulf coast after evacuating ahead of Hurricane Gustav. Most are returning to dark houses. More than 800,000 households across the region are still without electricity after Gustav. And officials say it could take up to a month to fully restore power. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Louisiana is in the dark. What's the worst thing about living without power?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't blow-dry my hair.

MESERVE: This man can laugh. He found a rare gas station with electricity to run the pumps. But even here no credit card transactions. In vast blacked-out areas, there are no ATMs, no grocery stores, no pharmacies. In had some places, no power for water and sewer systems.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, LOUISIANA: Restoring power is the number one challenge we continue to face as a state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any idea how many generators you have coming here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got 16.

MESERVE: Trucks, crews and equipment have come in from 26 states and D.C. generators are being brought in to restore power immediately to critical facilities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hospitals, water treatment facilities, nursing homes.

MESERVE: Until the water power is back in communities, evacuees are being urged to stay away, for some that could mean weeks in shelters. Only two parishes in the state have full power and in the storm area, 40 percent of transmission lines are out of service. Restoration rivals the scale and difficult of Katrina, says the power company. Whether one of the storms lurking in the Atlantic hits here or elsewhere, it could have an impact on Louisiana's recovery.

GEORGE FORESMAN, FMR. HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: We're going to get to a point, particularly if we see one, two, or even three more storms hit, where the amount of resources in terms of people, equipment, transformers, wires, poles, those type of things are going to really stretch the ability to be able to do a quick rapid restoration. MESERVE (on-camera): There were worrisome questions about how the lack of power could complicate efforts to get ready for another storm? Would people be able to pump gas to evacuate? Will first responders be able to communicate. Fingers are crossed the storms will go elsewhere. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Baton Rouge.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: So many storms and so many victims and potential victims, if you'd like to help but don't know where to start, we made it easy for you. CNN has set up a web page "Impact Your World" devoted to disaster relief. Here's what you do, just log on to cnn.com/impact. And follow the links to a variety of aid agencies. CNN can help you "Impact your world."

And new this morning, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigning after agreeing to a plea deal in a sex scandal. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony obstruction charges last hour where he will serve four months in jail, five years probation and pay $1 million in restitution. Kilpatrick was accused of lying about an affair with a former top aid Christine Beatty. Beatie also facing charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Earlier I spoke with reporter Mark Santia of Detroit television station WDIB.

Tell us what took so long this morning. We have been watching the proceedings from about 08:30 Eastern time this morning. And it seemed to take some time before all of the parties were brought back into the courtroom and the plea deal was announced.

MARK SANTIA, REPORTER, WDIB: Hi, Tony. What took so long is that the negotiations were still going on. There's a lot of finishing touches being put on. The language and a plea deal was finalized about an hour and a half ago. There were two separate cases here. Tony, there was the perjury case, the text message case, that you talked about earlier, if you want to call it the sex case. That was one case. The other case was the mayor was accused of assaulting police officers.

Now, the text message case was totally worked out. That was all set. What took so long was over the wrangling over the assault case. That wend back and forth for some time. When it was finalized the mayor of Detroit stood up in the podium. He pled guilty to multiple felonies. He resigned, and he will now have to spend 120 days in jail, Tony.

HARRIS: Mark, I remember when this mayor was elected. I guess, he was 31 or 32 years old. There was a lot of fanfare about his youth and he was looked on as the future of that city. How shocking a development is this today? Particularly since the mayor had vowed to fight this?

SANTIA: Well, you know what, Tony, there's a lot of disappointment because as you said, there were a lot of folks looking to him to lead Detroit for the next several years and a lot of folks around Detroit extremely disappointed. It's a very somber day. It's a historic day with the mayor stepping down. The mayor vowed all along that he would fight this, but it came to a place where he's stepping down and I think the sense that you got in the courtroom as well as folks on the street here, they're very, very saddened. They had thought that - a lot of folks that this mayor had extreme potential.

Young, as you said, the mayor's only 38 years old. Very young when he took office.

HARRIS: That's right.

SANTIA: 32 years old when he took office. They thought he had a lot of potential. And today it all came to an end.

HARRIS: I'm just. One final question, Mark. Well, actually two, I'm curious as to where you believe the city goes from here. Who is the person who steps in now? And is that person, I believe it's the president of the city council. Is this person respected in the city?

SANTIA: You're right, Tony. It is the president of the city council, his name is Ken Cockwell Jr.. Ken Cockwell, Jr. has been setting up a transition team. He will now be the mayor of the city of Detroit. And he is respected. I think it's such a tumultuous time here for the last seven or eight months in the city. Citizens, employees, workers, big business, they're looking for some sort of normalcy. They're looking for - they're looking for everything to settle down. And today some are hoping it's just the beginning.

HARRIS: It's amazing to see this is the mayor of a major American city who was defiant in the courtroom at times, seemingly jutting out his jaw, seemingly unashamed and now he is on his way at some point in the near future here to prison. Mark Santia from our affiliate station in New York. Mark, thanks for your time.

Governor Sarah Palin front and center at the republican convention last night. Today, i-reporters critique her big speech.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The long awaited acceptance speech by Governor Sarah Palin, what did you think? Finally what did you think? Veronica de la Cruz has been looking through your i-reports. Veronica, good morning.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, nice to see you, Tony. You know, there's been a lot of reaction to Governor Palin's speech. Let's go and start with an i-reporter from Illinois who really liked the governor's speech. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN DILLMAN, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS: I'm Jen Dillman, from Springfield, Illinois and I thought that Sarah hit it out of the ballpark tonight. She was tough yet elegant and graceful. As a mom, I think it's awesome to have a mom up there giving such a dynamic speech. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DE LA CRUZ: All right. So that was Jen Dillman there. And Sheryl Langdon from Indiana agrees. She says she can't believe that she'll be voting for a republican ticket, but she was pleased with Palin's speech.

SHERYL LANGDON, REDFORD, INDIANA: I loved everything that was said. I loved the courage, hope, and change that she ended the speech with. Spoke right to me.

DE LA CRUZ: There you go, a couple of i-reporters there who liked Palin, but some didn't. Let's go ahead and listen now to an I- reporter who has a husband in the military and she thinks that Palin's speech offered a lot of contradictions.

"CAROLINE," FT. CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY: she kept on saying that she will lead the nation better than they found it. And that the stakes right now the nation couldn't be higher. Well, I totally agree with her, but does she realize that the republicans put us in this predicament?

DE LA CRUZ: And finally, Tony, Jordan Sarver had this to say.

JORDAN SARVER, ATHENS, GEORGIA: I would venture to say that Alaska is not that diverse. I'm sure it's not. I would not be surprised if Alaska was kind of like the Norway of America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DE LA CRUZ: That's Jordan Sarver, he says he doesn't feel Palin or McCain represent him or his community. So we are asking you, what are your thoughts on Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate? What did you think of last night's RNC? Go ahead and send us an i- report. All you have to do is log on to i-report.com.

HARRIS: Boy, your job is tough. You've got to sort through all of that and sort of bring some balance to all of this. But nice job. Nice job. Thanks, Veronica.

DE LA CRUZ: Thank you.

HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues one hour from now, 1:00 p.m. Eastern, now back to our coverage of the republican convention in St. Paul with Soledad O'Brien.