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American Morning
Obama and McCain on the Attack; Sarah Palin Remains a Crowd Drawer; Where the Candidates Stand on Trade; Rumors on the Internet: Fact Checking Sarah Palin; Big Bang Test Sparks Fear; Interview with Chuck Norris
Aired September 10, 2008 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Round house right.
CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: Our government has become so bloated. The people don't have a say any more.
ROBERTS: Chuck Norris on the 2008 election. Why Washington should fear the beard.
Plus, secrets of the universe.
SIR MARTIN REES, UNIVERSE OF CAMBRIDGE: We're literally the ashes of long dead stars.
ROBERTS: Despite fears that a black hole could swallow the earth, scientists fire up the Big Bang machine. And we're still here on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Indeed, we are still here this morning. We didn't even go into a time warp.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I said nothing went wrong. It's still -- no time warp. It wouldn't have been. We have to work until Friday.
ROBERTS: Yes. Calendar moving along as planned. It is Wednesday. It's the 10th of September. Got a lot ahead this morning including Chuck Norris. Great interview with Chuck that we've got for you.
CHETRY: Yes. We're going to be speaking with Chuck about the political scene and what issues matter to people at home, but we begin with Hurricane Ike. Right now, this storm is chugging through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It's expected to strengthen before making landfall along the Texas coast later this week.
Emergency officials are on standby ready to evacuate a million people from the Rio Grande Valley. Yesterday, the Category one storm tore a deadly path through Cuba dumping up to 20 inches of rain.
U.S. intelligence experts are looking into reports that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, may have suffered a serious stroke. The 66-year-old has not been seen in public in weeks. He also didn't appear yesterday. It's a military parade that marked North Korea's 60th anniversary.
Intelligence experts are calling his absence "significant." North Korean officials deny reports their leader is seriously ill.
And there's a warning from Russia's military about a proposed U.S. missile shield in Europe. The commander of Russia's strategic missile forces says ballistic rockets could be aimed at the system if it's ever built. Last month, the United States and Poland agreed on building a site for the 10 missile interceptors by 2012. American officials say it's meant to protect Europe and the U.S. from attacks by rogue states such as Iran. Russia has repeatedly said it considers the site a threat.
ROBERTS: Now to the "Most Politics in the Morning" and 55 days until the election. John McCain and Barack Obama neck and neck in the race for the White House. Today, CNN's latest poll of polls says McCain with a one-point lead over Obama. That is down from a two- point lead yesterday.
And the candidates and their number twos are pulling no punches on the campaign trail. And the attacks, well, some say they're getting personal. CNN's Candy Crowley takes a look at all the political heat.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran and John.
You know, inside those poll numbers there's been some interesting movement lately. While Barack Obama still leads in the category of who could best bring about change, John McCain is gaining on him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): How many ways can Barack Obama say that John McCain is not the candidate of change?
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.
CROWLEY: At Camp McCain where they are eager to attract women voters, they took that personally insisting Sarah Palin was being compared to a pig, calling that disgraceful and offensive. Obama aides responded to the response calling it a pathetic attempt to play the gender card, accusing McCain of running an increasingly dishonorable campaign.
The time is short, the race is close, the campaign trail bristles with tension. As Obama pitched his education program including Republican friendly ideas like more money for charter schools and performance based teacher pay, the McCain campaign put up an ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CAMPAIGN COMMERCIAL) NARRATOR: Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergarteners. Learning about sex before learning to read?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: The Obama campaign called that ad shameful, perverse, a distortion of a bill designed to protect children from sexual predators. It was blistering.
John McCain said an Obama spokesman couldn't define what honor was, and now we know why. Responding to the response, a McCain spokesman said, "If they want to question John McCain's honor and record of service, that's a debate we welcome 55 days until the election.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: Despite the increased bitterness there is a respite ahead. Obama and McCain have agreed that they will honor those who died September 11th, not as rivals but as Americans -- Kiran and John.
ROBERTS: Candy Crowley reporting for us this morning. Candy, thanks so much.
The phrase "lipstick on a pig" is one widely used in politics to denigrate a new proposal as simply a dressed-up version of an old idea. In fact, John McCain employed it twice during the primary campaign to describe Hillary Clinton's health care plan. The first time was in Iowa last October and then, again, four months ago at this town hall meeting in Denver.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In 1993, we rejected the then Clinton universal health care proposal. It was rejected by the American people. I don't like to use this term but the latest proposal I see is putting "lipstick on a pig."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So Senator John McCain in his own words there. A lot of back and forth on this on the campaign trail today expected as well -- Kiran.
CHETRY: That's right. The front page of the "New York Post" calls it the "Boar Wars" this morning.
Well, some polls suggest John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate is attracting women voters to the Republican ticket, and Democrats fear Palin could pull Hillary Clinton supporters away from Barack Obama. But vice presidential nominee Joe Biden is throwing cold water on that idea saying that Sarah Palin's celebrity is obscuring her message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think the issue is what does Sarah Palin think? What does she believe? I assume she thinks and agrees with the same policies that George Bush and John McCain think, and that's obviously a backward step for women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Meantime, the McCain campaign says Biden "sunk to a new low" with his comments on stem cell research, which they claim is a veiled attack on Sarah Palin. Biden said Republican advocates for special needs children should support stem cell research. Sarah Palin has a son with Down syndrome and opposes stem cell research.
Well, Sarah Palin taking center stage since the GOP convention. Is it by chance or is it the McCain campaign strategy to keep the spotlight on her and to play up the idea that she's a maverick to win voters in toss up states? Well, our Ed Henry is live in Fairfax, Virginia, with a look at that today.
Hi, Ed.
ED HENRY, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran. You're absolutely right.
This is all about John McCain trying to deploy what is really his best weapon right now, Sarah Palin, out on the campaign trail. Here in a key swing state, the McCain camp expecting a very large crowd in this park behind me in a few hours. And what's interesting is Democrats have not carried the state of Virginia since 1964, but they've been winning gubernatorial and Senate races in recent years. There's a huge Democratic turnout here in northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., suburbs.
For John McCain to play here, he really needs to play off his maverick stances and he also needs to reel in suburban soccer moms. We used to call them soccer moms, maybe now they're called hockey moms. That's why Sarah Palin is being deployed -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. They have a lot of names. The Wal-Mart moms, the hockey moms.
Well, John McCain is also getting back to a message that we haven't heard much since the arrival of Sarah Palin and that's attacking Barack Obama's experience. Let's take a listen.
HENRY: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Obama was wrong about Iran, he's wrong about Iraq, he's wrong about Russia, he's wrong about America's national security challenges in the future. And he has no experience and more importantly he lacks the judgment to lead this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: How is this tactic of talking about that change given Sarah Palin's limited amount of foreign policy experience?
HENRY: Certainly clouds John McCain's case. He'd been making a lot of progress, gaining a lot of steam against Barack Obama in recent weeks on the experience question. This is now more complicated because of Sarah Palin's own experience.
But I think the McCain camp is confident that ultimately people across the country are going to decide on the experience at the top of the ticket, so they are trying to ride Sarah Palin's popularity for all it's worth at least now in the short term.
For example, this rally today was supposed to be at a high school here. It turned out the rules say you can't have a political rally during school hours. So the McCain camp is trying to make lemonade out of lemons by saying, well, the crowd is going to be so big we had to move it out of the high school anyway. They are expecting somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people. That's a huge crowd for John McCain, Kiran. It's because of Sarah Palin.
CHETRY: Very fascinating. Ed Henry, thanks for being with us.
ROBERTS: Issue number one, the candidates on trade. Ali Velshi looks at what the policies of the next president could mean for your job.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up on 10 minutes after the hour. Ali Velshi is here "Minding Your Business" this morning. Of course, we've been tackling issue number one all week, what the candidates are saying about things. And some people complaining that they're not hearing enough about this particular issue on the campaign trail. So lay it out.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Trade. Because trade affects your job. It's not some obscure economic concept.
Free trade is the issue in debate right now. Free trade is basically trade between countries without tariffs, duties, quotas, barriers, subsidies -- all those kinds of things. Any country can sell anything to anybody else. It provides reciprocal access to consumers in each country. So if the United States and China have free trade, then consumers in both countries should be able to buy anything made in the other country and should be able to sell their products to the other country.
Now, here's where the candidates stand on this. John McCain generally is a big supporter of free trade. He likes it because his argument is it allows cheaper foreign goods to be imported into the United States making it easier for Americans to buy things. It opens foreign markets to U.S. made goods, and it creates jobs in industries where the United States has a competitive or cost advantage. Barack Obama and Democrats generally tend to be more hesitant about free trade including discussion about renegotiating NAFTA. The reason they don't like it is because it creates competition at home for U.S.-made goods because you're now -- you have a choice of buying U.S.-made goods or Chinese-made goods. It eliminates jobs where the United States has a competitive or cost disadvantage where it's more expensive to make goods. And it results in the outsourcing of lower value work, things like manufacturing, things that can be done more inexpensively in other countries.
So that's basically what it comes down to. If you are in a lower value job or you are in manufacturing, which is not necessarily low value but can be done cheaper in other places, trade tends to compromise your job more than it does if you are in a higher value industry. And that's sort of how it breaks down.
Barack Obama says he wants to renegotiate NAFTA to some degree. John McCain says he loves NAFTA and he'd have other plans that would emulate it.
ROBERTS: So what were you doing last night?
VELSHI: I was in a place -- there's a business that's been open. It's one of Barry Diller's companies, InterActive Corporation. And for $399, you spit into a test tube and they test you for various genetic conditions.
CHETRY: This is the thing -- we're not on camera.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I don't know why they were doing the spitting at the party. I thought that was a little bit weird. Yes, I didn't do it. But I thought it's an interesting story.
ROBERTS: But they do this at a party? Why are we having all this?
VELSHI: Yes, yes. There were people there spitting into a test tube.
ROBERTS: Whatever happened to beer (INAUDIBLE).
VELSHI: Yes. No, that's what I thought. I saw test tubes. Somebody was doing shots. I feel like I'm a little old for this, but whatever. But it's a good story.
CHETRY: It is.
ROBERTS: And we hope to hear more about that, too.
CHETRY: And now, we shared it with all of America and the world. Thanks, Ali.
Well, scientists going back to the beginning to learn more about the so-called "Big Bang Theory." We're live in Switzerland with a firsthand look at the massive scientific experiment.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, you might say it's science on steroids. A massive experiment activated overnight deep underground near the border between Switzerland and France. Ten thousand scientists from 85 countries working to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang that created the new universe. But some say that the experiment could have catastrophic consequences.
Atika Shubert joins us live from Switzerland's France's border this morning where all of this is taking place recreating the Big Bang.
Hi, Atika.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.
Scientists here are celebrating and around the world. In fact, we just saw a live broadcast from Chicago where scientists stayed up all night and held a pajama party to celebrate what is essentially the first time this giant massive machine has been running. A particle beam has been inserted and has now gone around several times, and what's being affectionately known here as the Big Bang machine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): This is the biggest scientific experiment ever, 14 years and $10 billion in the making. The goal, trying to understand the secrets of the universe by recreating the moments just after the Big Bang.
SIR MARTIN REES, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: We got to clearly understand the atoms were made. But you got to understand the stars, too, because every atom we made of was fused from primordial hydrogen in a star which exploded before the sun formed we're literally the ashes of long dead stars.
SHUBERT: This is the Large Hadron Collider or LHC, affectionately called the Big Bang machine. At CERN, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva. The plan, beam particles around 27 kilometers or 17 miles of underground track at nearly the speed of light to smash them together, recreate conditions less than a microsecond after the Big Bang.
Massive detectors will try and track down sub-atomic particles released from the collision. The most highly-anticipated, the Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle," theorized but not yet proven to exist.
Scientists believe it gives matter its mass allowing for the formation of stars, planets and whole galaxies. There are detractors. On YouTube, you get this. Some fear the experiment will create a black hole that will swallow the earth. But CERN says this will not happen. Critics also question what they see as astronomical billions of dollars in costs. But for many physicists, there is no question.
REES: And I think you are culturally deprived if you can't appreciate the amazing chain of events that led from some mysterious beginning 13 or 14 billion years ago through atoms, stars, galaxies, planets and biospheres.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: You know, really fascinating stuff, Atika, when you take a look at it. And you talk about the fear of this experiment creating a black hole. It didn't happen obviously, but some say we're not out of the woods yet. Explain that.
SHUBERT: No. And the fact is we wouldn't see any of those microscopic black holes until we actually start colliding those particles. And that's not going to happen until several days, several weeks, maybe even several months. It all depends on how the machine runs today. Once we get those particle collisions, that's when we might see the black hole.
That's when people might want to worry, but scientists again say nothing to worry about. Mother Nature puts in these kind of cosmic collisions all the time and so far, a black hole hasn't eaten us up yet. So, no need to worry.
CHETRY: Wow. Pretty neat. All right. Atika Shubert for us at the Switzerland-France border, thanks.
ROBERTS: Inside the rumor mill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SALSBURY, OLYMPIA WASHINGTON BLOGGER: I made all of them up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Teaching creationism. Banning books? The relentless rumors about Sarah Palin. Joe Johns checks the facts.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now to 22 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the "Most Politics in the Morning."
We have been hearing an awful lot about Sarah Palin since she exploded on the national political scene, and not all of it is true. The McCain campaign firing back, launching the Palin truth squad to set the records straight against what it calls liberal smears.
CNN's Joe Johns separates fact from fiction for us this morning. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Straight from the Internet which brought you the relentless rumor completely false that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Now, it's Sarah Palin who's getting misrepresented with bogus quotes and facts.
Here's one quote attributed to Palin that we found posted by readers in the comment sections of at least three mainstream political news Web sites.
"God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really. So when they died and became petroleum products, we, made in His perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks."
"Lizards of Satan"? It's a pure fabrication. Palin never said it. It was totally made up by a guy named Bob who put it on his blog as a joke. How do we know that?
BOB SALSBURY, OLYMPIA WASHINGTON BLOGGER: My name is Bob Salsbury, and I'm a blogger.
JOHNS: We talked to Bob via the Internet and he admits it.
SALSBURY: I did. I made all of them up one morning.
JOHNS: But there's plenty more where that came from circulating on the Internet. One of the first false rumors out about Palin was that she cut Alaska's funding for special needs education by more than 60 percent. The truth is exactly the opposite, says Viveca Novak, of FactCheck.org.
VIVECA NOVAK, FACTCHECK.ORG: She has actually tripled funding for special needs children.
JOHNS: And then there's the rumor that as mayor of little Wasilla, Alaska, Palin demanded that certain books be banned from the library. Didn't happen.
The truth is that she did ask some questions about banning books, even informed the librarian she's being fired, but later relented under pressure. But for the record, no books were banned.
And then there's an Internet claim that Palin pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. Also, not true.
Palin said students should debate both sides, but she did not make teaching creationism part of the official curriculum. So if you're seeing a trend here in the kinds of Internet rumors, it sort of looks like they're trying to portray her as, well, a little extreme, which made us ask our polling expert whether this kind of thing helps or hurts the candidate.
KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLSTER: The people that are most susceptible to that message are Democrats and liberals who already have a bad impression of her simply because she's on the Republican ticket.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Common sense Chuck.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: Our government has become so bloated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The former action star and Huckabee backer opens up about McCain and the do-nothing Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: How can they get anything done screaming at each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Ouch! Well, that's Chuck Norris in the 2000 thriller "The President's Men" saving the U.S. from a nuclear attack. Well, now the actor is looking to save the American dream in a new book, "Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America." And I had the chance to sit down and talk with Chuck Norris and asked him about the campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: I'm really kind of independent, you know. Right now, you know, I'm just waiting to see. I was impressed because I really -- I believe we need to lower, to give the power back to the people in America.
You know that our government has become so bloated, such a bloated bureaucracy that our people don't have a say anymore. And we did need to bring the power back to the people and that's what this book is all about. It talks about our national debt and our economy and the immigration problem we're having and my common sense solutions to these problems.
CHETRY: And I want to ask you about this because clearly the message that something has to change. That status quo is not OK has resonated not only with the voters but also on the campaign trail. And in fact, let's listen to a little bit of what John McCain said when he was in Missouri about the message of change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We understand who we work for. We don't work for a party. We don't work for a special interest. We don't work for ourselves.
We're going to work for you, and we're going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. And we're going to take on the special interests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NORRIS: Well, yes, I heard his speech and it impressed me. I have to say, his speech did impress me because that's what the government is supposed to do. They are supposed to work for people.
CHETRY: How does he make that argument, though, for change, although he has taken positions that haven't been in line with his party, sometimes unpopular ones, he has technically been a part of the Washington establishment for nearly three decades.
NORRIS: Yes, I know that. Yes. But the thing is he's been one of 200 -- you know the thing is -- we have 435 congressmen, 100 senators, 535 people. How in the world do they get anything accomplished?
I don't believe they can. The thing is, Gina, my wife and I, went into the House Chamber of the House of Representatives and here's 435 congressmen screaming at each other across the aisle. Now I'm thinking, how can they get anything done, you know, with that many people screaming at each other? And I really believe we need to shrink the size of Congress so we can get the people responsible and accountable for the situation that we're in right now in our country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And Chuck Norris also talked to me about his support for the fair tax move which would eliminate the IRS and put a national retail sales tax in place. It's something Mike Huckabee supported in the primaries which is why Chuck Norris supported Huckabee in the primaries as well. Libertarian candidate Bob Barr is also for a fair tax. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain supported -- John.
ROBERTS: Just about 30 minutes past the hour now, and a check on your top stories this morning. The Texas coastline bracing for what could be a serious blow by Hurricane Ike. The National Guard is on stand by and already evacuations are underway in Corpus Christi. Ike is chugging across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico right now after making landfall in Cuba yesterday for the second time. Forecasters predict the storm is going to strengthen before hitting the Galveston area sometime Friday night or Saturday morning.
OPEC announcing plans to cut oil production by more than 500,000 barrels a day. It's an attempt by the oil ministers to put a floor on tumbling crude prices. The price of crude dropping nearly 30 percent since spiking to almost $150 a barrel back in July.
And jury selection resumes this morning in O.J. Simpson's kidnapping and armed robbery trial in Las Vegas. Some in the jury poll had trouble getting past Simpson's acquittal in his 1995 murder trial. One prospective juror telling Simpson in court yesterday that she thought he got away with murder. Simpson and a co-defendant are charged with robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room last year.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, John McCain and Sarah Palin teaming up again today on the campaign trail. They will be talking to voters in Virginia before Palin heads home to Alaska. Also, McCain went back to some familiar campaign rhetoric in attacking Barack Obama yesterday. Here's CNN's Dana Bash.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, the huge crowds for John McCain and Sarah Palin aren't a surprise any more. But there was one surprise. The return of what had been a standard McCain line before Palin was in the picture.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): The Straight Talk Express pulled into a now familiar post-convention scene, dense Ohio crowds who waited for hours to catch a glimpse, maybe get an autograph from John McCain's running mate. Yet in McCain speech something now less familiar. A stable attack against Barack Obama that McCain had conspicuously dropped with the first term Alaska governor by his side, the readiness argument.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Obama was wrong about Iran, he was wrong about Iraq, he was wrong about Russia, he's wrong about America's national security challenges in the future. And he has no experience and more importantly he lacks the judgment to lead this country.
BASH: A senior adviser concedes to CNN that McCain brought that line back in response to this from Obama a day earlier.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was just like a month ago, they were all saying -- oh, it's experience, experience, experience. Then they chose Palin and they started talking about change, change, change. What happened?
BASH: CNN is told that camp McCain wanted to signal they're not abandoning a core pre-convention, pre-Palin mantra that Obama lacks the judgment to be president. But the thrust of the McCain-Palin strategy is still to convince voters they'll shake up Washington.
MCCAIN: Change is coming and real change is coming to Washington, D.C.
BASH: And for McCain talking change means not talking about George W. Bush. Even on a day the president said 8,000 troops would be coming home from Iraq. A sign of success you would think McCain would trumpet, yet no mention of the Bush announcement at rallies in Ohio or Pennsylvania.
MCCAIN: Senator Obama voted to cut off funding for our troops in Iraq.
BASH: Instead it was all about Obama being wrong in opposing the surge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: McCain's campaign did release a written statement about the president's troop announcement which focused almost entirely on Barack Obama, and is, quote, "utterly confused Iraq position." Now, it's no accident McCain doesn't want to talk about the president in front of voters in a battleground state. His advisers say they've concluded that undecided voters aren't sure they want to vote for Obama, but they know they don't want four more years of Bush.
John and Kiran?
ROBERTS: Dana Bush reporting for us this morning. Dana, thanks so much. Sarah Palin returns to Alaska today. But her home coming bittersweet as her eldest son, Track, deploys for Iraq. And since Palin was nominated for vice president her career and her personal life have been under the microscope.
CNN's Jessica Yellin joins us this morning from Anchorage, Alaska. She is live with more in all of this.
Good morning, Jessica.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Here's something you might not know about Sarah Palin. She held her baby shower for her fourth child at a shooting range. Even some of her friends laugh about that. They say that she's been able to juggle motherhood and politics because she needs very little sleep.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YELLIN (voice-over): Governor Palin starts sending e-mails at 4:30 in the morning.
MEG STAPLETON, PALIN CAMPAIGN ADVISER: We used to joke around that it's as though she has an I.V. of caffeine running through her because we could never keep up with her and it would be constant.
YELLIN: According to a childhood friend juggling five kids doesn't phase her.
KRISTAN COLE, CHILDHOOD FRIEND: When she was mayor or just when she was a citizen, you usually saw one child on her hip.
YELLIN: She regularly takes daughter Piper to work.
COLE: Gosh, I would say the first six months she was born she was underneath Sarah's desk at the mayor's office.
YELLIN: While the older kids help clean and run errands, her husband does his share.
COLE: When Sarah is really busy, Todd will be the one to make their breakfast, put the ponytail then.
YELLIN: But sometimes no one really does the cooking.
STAPLETON: When she's joked around about that -- oh, they can throw a sandwich together.
YELLIN: These days the crib in the office is infant son Trig. Friend say Palin has come to terms with the new challenge telling them --
COLE: You know, I looked at my other four children, I said, they are not perfect. And she said it allowed me to see that I'm going to love Trig just as much as I loved the other four, because they are not perfect and he's not perfect either. But I love them. And I'm going to love him, too.
YELLIN: Palin supporters insist her experience as a working mother means she'll represent American women. But some women's group are critical. The Non-Partisan National Partnership for Women and Families gives Alaska a D minus when it comes to its parental leave policy. For example, there's no guarantee a paid leave for new parents.
DR. VICKI LOVELL, INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN'S POLICY RESEARCH: I think there's a contradiction there between Governor Palin's professed values about supporting families and then what we actually see in the state of Alaska where there aren't adequate supports for families who are welcoming new infants.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YELLIN: John, one of the reasons that Alaska gets that D minus is because it's possible that state -- it's possible that employees of private companies could be putting their jobs in jeopardy if they take more than 12 weeks of maternity leave. Now, defenders of Palin said she's had other priorities since become governor including championing that natural gas pipeline and giving citizens money back for what windfall profits tax on oil companies.
John?
ROBERTS: Jessica, of course, Governor Palin, herself, not known for taking family leave. I think she took a day after the birth of one of her children and three days after the birth of her latest one, Trig. But does she get other help as well as to help from her husband?
YELLIN: Significant help from her husband. They also say in- laws, family friends, parents. She has a total support network. One person even said it takes a village, a phrase more commonly associated with Hillary Clinton.
ROBERTS: I think I've heard that before. Jessica Yellin in Anchorage for us this morning. Jessica, thanks so much. 37 minutes now after the hour. CHETRY: Texas on alert. Hurricane Ike enters the Gulf where it could become a devastating Category 3 storm. We've got the latest prediction. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Hurricane Ike is gaining strength and heading straight towards the Texas Coast this morning. A category 1 now. It's moving into the Gulf and pummeling Cuba.
So far, Ike has killed at least 80 people across the Caribbean and this morning, more than 7,000 Texas National Guard troops are on stand by in Corpus Christi. They are already starting the evacuation. CNN's Rob Marciano is live in the hurricane headquarters.
It looks like they want to be prepared to have to move as many as a million people out of that Rio Grande Valley. That seems like a daunting task, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is, but Texas is a big state. So, we start them early and we fan them out rapidly.
85 miles an hour wind, a Category 1, as you mentioned, off the tip of Cuba now and into the Gulf of Mexico, where the waters are pretty warm and aircraft in there doing some recon, saying, yes, it's getting a little bit better organized. Lot of warm water in through here. A couple of currents that will turn the thermostat up just a little bit and probably crank this thing up to a Cat 2 later today and potentially a Cat 3 as well as we get towards landfall.
So, here's the forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. Still taking a northwesterly and a bit of a westerly track. We still have pretty much the entire Texas coastline in the cone with the exception of -- maybe the Golden Triangle. But from Brownsville up to Galveston, you're in it for potential hit. And the timing is such -- again, late Friday night into early Saturday morning, potentially as a Category 3 storm and that would do some serious damage and definitely warrant some quick evacuations.
The Keys, you're still getting hit with some showers and thunderstorms. We even have a couple of tornado warnings as recent as about 5:00 this morning across parts of Monroe County. So, southwest parts of Florida, which has felt the brunt of Fay recently, feeling the brunt of Ike. High pressure is what's keeping everything squished to the south. It's what's giving the folks in New York a pretty decent day today, but folks in Texas, certainly, on edge this morning.
Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. We'll be checking in with you throughout the morning on that one, Rob. Thanks.
MARCIANO: OK.
ROBERTS: Joe Biden, unguarded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Had given me permission to be me again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: An emotional interview about how he dealt with the greatest loss of his life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: She did. I mean she restored my life. I know that sounds corny but she really did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up at 45 minutes after the hour. Welcome back. We are minding your business this morning as an investment giant teeters. The battered Lehman Brothers, which is expected to announce a big quarterly loss this morning, took a pounding yesterday. Its stock nearly cut in half amid growing concerns that investors or the government may not come to its rescue.
Meantime, the federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still a major topic on the campaign trail with fewer than two months to go now before the election. We want to keep bringing you the candidates in their own words. So, here now is Senator John McCain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: This week, we're looking at a costly government-led restructuring of our home loan agencies. We need to keep people in their homes but we can't allow this to turn into a bailout of Wall Street speculators and irresponsible executives.
(APPLAUSE)
Taxpayers -- my friends, I want to tell you, this action was required because of the cronyism and special interest influence in Washington, D.C. That's why we're in the fix that we're in. So, all you ever asked of government is to stand on your side not in your way and that's just what I just intend to do. Stand on your side and fight for your future.
(APPLAUSE)
We have succeeded in Iraq and we are winning and our troops will come home with victory and honor. They will come home with victory and honor.
(APPLAUSE) If Senator Obama had had his way, we'd have suffered defeat, Iranian influence would have increased and we would face greater chaos in the region. Senator Obama has refused to acknowledge that he was wrong about the surge. He said it wouldn't succeed. Thanks to General David Petraeus and these brave young Americans, we are winning in Iraq and they will come home with honor.
Senator Obama was wrong about Iran. He was wrong about Iraq. He was wrong about Russia. He's wrong about America's national security challenges in the future and he has no experience and, more importantly, he lacks the judgment to lead this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Senator John McCain in his own words for you there and we're going to hear from Barack Obama on the economy. That will be coming up in a few minutes here the "Most News in the Morning."
CHETRY: Eyeglasses and an action figure. Sarah Palin hits pop culture. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin giving the McCain campaign a shot in the arm and it seems she's even becoming a fashion icon. Her signature glasses are now in high demand and there's even a Sarah Palin action figure for sale. CNN's Jeanne Moos looks at the Palin phenomenon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sarah Palin for V.P. Read my lipstick. If you can't read this sign, maybe you need glasses. Sarah Palin glasses.
Excuse me. Do you like her glasses?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do. I like them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, my husband says she's hot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are awesome.
MOOS: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really, it's the best thing about her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're kind of like mine.
MOOS: They are $375, titanium frame glasses from a Japanese designer, Kawasaki. North American distributor says since Palin was picked for V.P. nominee sales have quadrupled. On a message board, popular with opticians. One wrote, I had four calls for Palin eye wear today. As one of those callers put it, "Palinize me." Opticians hope she will do more for glasses sales than say Tina Faye.
Governor Palin got her Kawasaki's from an Alaskan optician who makes house calls. Joy Leedham took 300 pairs of glasses to Palin's home
JOY LEEDHAM, HOME OPTICS OWNER: Her family kind of gathered around and she'd say which is better, this one or this one?
MOOS: Joy said other opticians have given her grief for not ordering AR, anti-reflective coating. But that was Palin's choice so don't blame the optician for the reflected glory of TV lights and flash bulbs.
Of course, Palin, has older pairs of glasses. She's been wearing specs a long time, but no one paid much attention until she hit the big time. Those glasses are inaccurate. Those would be the glasses on the brand new Sarah Palin action figure selling for $30 at herobuilders.com.
(on camera): It seems to me that the accessory you're interested in is not her glasses but on her leg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She carries a hoisted 45 weapon. You need that in Alaska, you know, bears.
MOOS (voice-over): This is the superhero version. There are two others.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's way too short. Come on, she doesn't dress like that.
MOOS: And bet you haven't seen her wearing this on the campaign trail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sure she's worn shoes like that in Alaska.
MOOS (on camera): Moose hunting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS (voice-over): Whatever you do, don't call her four eyes. She's likely to take aim.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Piling on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Fair or flirting with sexism? The McCain campaign responds.
Plus, Donald Trump live. Who he would fire for the mortgage meltdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 54-and-a-half minutes after the hour. Kim Jong Il, the mysterious leader of one of the world's most isolated countries, North Korea, may be suffering from serious health problems.
U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials tell CNN that he may have had a stroke. Kim missed Thursday's parade celebrating North Korea's 60th anniversary. He had not missed any of the previous 10 military parades staged for major anniversaries.
Joining me now with more in all of this is CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. She was recently in North Korea.
So, is there any way to discern what's going on here?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really difficult. The intelligence coming from South Korea which had their own agenda and a little bit coming from the United States as well.
You know, everybody was looking at this parade to see where is Jim Jong Il, including us. We had applied for visas. And as you know, we've been there twice this year. And we thought that we would go for this parade. And we didn't get the visas. And so, everybody was looking to see whether he would be there.
Since then people have started to say he's got these serious health problems. South Korea held a press conference today saying that their intelligence has discerned that in the last three weeks, he may have had, quote, "a mild stroke." He may have some paralysis but they assure the world that his thinking has not been impaired.
ROBERTS: You know, thinking back to the days of the iron curtain and the Soviet Union, we usually hear from the (INAUDIBLE) that the premier has a cold. We're not even hearing anything like that.
AMANPOUR: No, we're not. And why is it so important? It's so important because North Korea is nuclear armed. It's had a test fire back in 2006. The U.S., South Korea, Japan, China are involved in very, very delicate but so far successful negotiations to get it to shut down and disable it's Yongbyon nuclear plant.
And so, this is what's vitally important. There's a few bumps on the road, but U.S. ambassador Christopher Hill was in Beijing just a few days ago trying to get this, you know, back on track where it should be.
ROBERTS: Back in the early 1990s, a relatively smooth transition between Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. What about potential succession here? He's got three sons. Are any of them prepped and ready to go? AMANPOUR: It was smooth but very lengthy. Kim Il Sung died in '94 and it was only about three or four years later that Kim Jong Il after a long period of mourning, officially took the reins at the helm. Here, he has sons but who knows? People say they are not groomed to take it over. But really one simply doesn't know. It's so secretive. It's so opaque.
ROBERTS: Who would have the inside track?
AMANPOUR: In terms of taking over?
ROBERTS: Yes, with the sons.
AMANPOUR: Well, if they do --
ROBERTS: Because I heard he had a falling out with the eldest son.
AMANPOUR: Yes. But who knows again. If they do go through this way dynastic way which they have done, and the person who created North Korea was Kim Il Sung so there's only been two leaders. If they do go, maybe one will be his son. But if not, it could be any number of his senior advisers. The number two there. It's very unclear at this point.
ROBERTS: And I'm sure you will be watching all of this closely. Christiane Amanpour, good to see you this morning.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, it is three minutes until the top of the hour. Here's a look at the top stories. The Gulf Coast getting ready for Hurricane Ike this morning. The storm is in the Gulf of Mexico right now. It's expected to get stronger as it heads toward Texas. Officials have already started emergency preparations. They may evacuate as many as a million people along the Rio Grande Valley.
Scientists in Switzerland took the first steps toward trying to recreate the big bang this morning. Scientist sent protons across a 17-mile long tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border with the eventual goal of smashing atoms into each other at almost the speed of light. Besides hints about earth's creation, the experiment could reveal hidden dimensions. Some people, in fact, even worried the experiment -- to see what started the world, could end it by producing a black hole that would swallow us all. But leading scientists and physicists say there is no way that could happen.
Well, first, our top story. The presidential race reaching a new level of ugly. Each side exchanging some vicious attacks, and Barack Obama taking some intense heat over a phrase that he used yesterday. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it still going to stink. After eight years we've had enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, the Republican National Committee instantly reacted to that saying it was a disgusting comment directed at Governor Sarah Palin. The Best Political Team has both sides this morning. We have Suzanne Malveaux in Washington. Ed Henry is with the McCain camp in Fairfax, Virginia.
First, we'll go to Suzanne.
Hey, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. Well, we've been on the campaign trail with Barack Obama in these small rural communities. Yesterday in southwest Virginia; earlier in the week, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The one thing that Obama is trying to do is to stay on message. To use what worked -- that is focus on the war, change and issues.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Barack Obama who has been running on his opposition to the Iraq war slammed President Bush's plan to bring home 8,000 U.S. troops by February. Too little too late, he said, to fix the mess in Iraq and fight the terrorists in Afghanistan.
OBAMA: President Bush also announced additional troops for Afghanistan. I'm glad that the president is moving in the direction of the policy that I've advocated for years. His plan comes up short. It is not enough troops, not enough resource, with not enough urgency.
MALVEAUX: Obama seized on the announcement to link his opponent to the unpopular war.
OBAMA: Senator McCain goes even further than President Bush in opposing the sovereign Iraqi government's own support for a timetable to redeploy our troops while offering no plan to press the Iraqis to reconcile.
MALVEAUX: Obama also went after John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin over their portrayal as the real agents of change. But he argued it works in his favor.
OBAMA: The Republican Party, which had been trying to make an argument about experience basically got off that and came to our field. And they realized that this is going to be a change election. That's a debate we welcome.
MALVEAUX: In Riverside, Ohio, Obama highlighted how he would change the country's education system.
OBAMA: I was experimentation, but I also want accountability.
MALVEAUX: His agenda includes, investing in early childhood education, doubling funding for successful charter school, providing $4,000 tax credits for students doing community service and increasing training and pay for teachers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: And on top of that, fund the government's existing program, No Child Left Behind to reward big schools. The big question is, obviously Kiran, how's he doing to pay for all of this?
Well, Obama brings it back to Iraq. He says that getting out will save the $10 billion that the U.S. spends on the war each month -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us in Washington. Thanks.
