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Supreme Court Sides with Ohio Official Over Voter Verification; Palin Brings up ACORN on Campaign Trail; Falling Oil Prices Cause OPEC to Meet

Aired October 17, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Whoa. There goes 52 bucks. There goes 52 more. Fifty-two bucks a second. That's how much Barack Obama is spending on campaign ads right now. Imagine what else you could do with $4.5 million a day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC, because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

PHILLIPS: That's what $17 and change per second will buy you. What do you think? Good call?

John McCain would give you five grand for health care. How far would that money really go? Thank goodness for Dr. Gupta. He's going to x-ray those numbers.

Ten fingers? So overrated. To hear her play is wonderful enough. To see her play is an inspiration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, and you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We're going to start by talking about that major decision by the Supreme Court that only adds to the tension in this compelling presidential election.

Just in to CNN, word that the justices in Washington have sided with Ohio's secretary of state in a dispute with Republicans over voter registration. Find out what's going on here and why it even matters from our Mary Snow. She joins me now live -- or actually, on the phone from Montgomery, Ohio.

Mary, what can you tell us?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, this is just the latest chapter, as you said, in a very lengthy legal battle. And basically, what it comes down to is this.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner was ordered, had been ordered, by today to hand over to counties lists of voters whose information didn't match with state records in terms of driver's license information, Social Security. She had estimated at least 200,000 people might be affected by this.

Basically, what this court order says is that she does not have to comply with that lower court ruling. Brunner had said that this move would have disenfranchised voters, and she said that this also enabled voters not to have to file or to vote by provisional ballots, which in cases are not even counted until after election day.

Now Republicans have said they are trying to prevent voter fraud. And they've become increasingly alarmed by allegations of registration fraud, because as you know, in Ohio, there is expected to be record turnout in this election.

I just spoke with a spokesman for the Republican Party here in Ohio. Republicans had initially filed this lawsuit. They say they are disappointed, and they're basically questioning why can't this happen? That the technology is in place.

PHILLIPS: Mary, a lot of people -- Mary, a lot of people wondering, too, is this going to impact the outcome of the election?

SNOW: It depends on who you talk to, Kyra. Because Democrats are saying, "Look, if these voters had been challenged, it may dissuade them from voting."

Republicans are saying, "Look, if there is fraud there, of course it's going to affect the outcome of the election."

We have spoken to a number of election experts who say the cases of voter fraud, actual fraud, have been low, very rare in recent years. And they say that registration fraud and voter fraud are two very different things. They don't think that they'll see a lot of voter fraud, but again, their predictions, depending on which party. It's a very partisan battle here.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mary Snow, appreciate it so much.

And just as Mary was laying on what's going on there with regard to the justices, we're getting word that Sarah Palin actually talked about voter irregularities. She was lashing out at the Obama campaign over the ACORN investigation, an investigation that our Drew Griffin broke. Her most substantive statements on that controversy to date, while she was in West Chester, Ohio. This is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SARAH PALIN (R-AK), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: As for ACORN and voter fraud, now they're under federal investigation, and John and I are calling on the Obama campaign to release communications it has had with this group and to do so immediately. And we are asking for this, not picking on someone or someone's campaign. We're asking this in fairness to all of you, the American voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, for a little bit more information on ACORN. The name stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. On its Web site, the group describes itself as a grassroots community organization of low and moderate income people. It boasts 400,000 member families and chapters in 110 cities. The group says that it helped more than 1.7 million people register to vote since 2004.

Now as I mentioned, our Drew Griffin, who works with the special investigations unit, is the one that broke that story on ACORN and the concerns over voting.

Drew, appreciate you coming in at just the last minute here, but you heard what Sarah Palin had said at that rally. What do you make of her pointing the finger at ACORN, at the Obama camp? And how does this fold into what's happening right now less than two weeks away from voting?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think ACORN has done a very bad job registering voters. Sloppy registration, and that's opened the door on the campaign trail for this charge.

But let's be very clear, Kyra. Voter registration fraud has not led to voter fraud, at least as far as anybody could -- can say at this time. We have a sloppy job going on of registering voters, but it's a big stretch to say that voter registration fraud is -- or has -- going to lead to voter fraud. Certainly in any kind of big numbers anywhere across the country.

So I think that this is a big stretch being said on the campaign trail. But, again, it is ACORN that has opened the door in this nasty campaign, if you will, to have statements like Sarah Palin made today.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know it's all kind of unraveling by the minute, and we are starting to hear. The talk has been, OK, what kind of attack ads are we going to see, Drew, before voting actually takes place?

Now, all of a sudden it's interesting. Voter irregularity, which is something that, as a network, we have been on top of and talking about. It all started with your investigation into ACORN. Could we start to see a different dynamic coming into play here and a focus by both of the campaigns on voter irregularity, and, "You know what? That's why I lost, because we had all these problems within the voting system," and start to see that play?

GRIFFIN: Yes, I think this is just a continuation of the George Bush elections. Any side who loses is going have an issue here. Now, it may flip this year, because at this moment, it looks like the Democrats will win and the Republicans will lose, but what this does is it opens the door for, hey, you know what? This was not a legitimate election, especially in some of these counties on the county level, where the vote is going to be particularly close.

You know, if you have a lot of ACORN involvement there with a lot of voter registration fraud, somebody is going to be able to make the case that, hey, this was a stolen election. True or not.

That's -- I think we both realize, Kyra that is probably what's going to happen.

And you have to look at ACORN for allowing this fuel on the fire. It may be in the end, ACORN just did a bad job of hiring the wrong people to do this, and ACORN itself was defrauded by these people, who are getting paid to register voters. But it does open the door for charges like you see on the campaign trail today.

PHILLIPS: Having visions of hanging chads right now. OK. Hanging ACORNs. OK. Drew Griffin, appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Well, 18 days -- 18 days, rather, and counting until Americans head to the polls. And if you live in one of those all-important battleground states like Florida, for example, you know it's impossible to turn on the TV without being bombarded by campaign ads.

Nationwide, our new poll of polls gives Barack Obama a six-point edge over John McCain. Yesterday, his lead was eight points. Our battleground focus today is Florida, a must-win state for McCain. CNN's latest state poll of polls there gives Obama a four-point edge. There we go, 49 percent to 45 percent.

All right. Senator McCain is in Miami right now. He's about to hold a rally at Florida International University. After this event, he is heading to Melbourne for another rally. That one's at Brevard Community College. Florida begins early voting on Monday. We'll monitor that event and bring it to you live when it starts.

So stay with us. We're going to keep an eye on things there in Miami where John McCain is and also Barack Obama, as he continues to speak in Virginia right now.

Now, we told you yesterday about the political shocker in Virginia: Barack Obama now with a double-digit lead in that once lively Republican state, Virginia. Well, the Democratic candidate is campaigning there, like we told you. He's holding this rally in Roanoke, and his focus, well, what else? The economy.

Virginia hasn't voted for a Democratic candidate for president since 1964, by the way.

And it's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it's still an endorsement. The "Washington Post" editorial board says that John McCain might make what it calls a pretty good president and that Barack Obama's resume is, quote, "undoubtedly thin," but it concludes that Obama is the right choice in November. "He is deliberate but not indecisive," and the paper says "eloquent but a master of substance and detail, confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. We think that he is the right man for the perilous moment."

Well, those attack ads that John McCain and Barack Obama are running cost a whole lot of money. And you might be surprised how much Obama is outspending McCain right now. But the Republicans are throwing a lot of money into so-called robocalls targeting Obama. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC, because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans, and Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington.

Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call is paid for by McCain/Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee, at 202-863-8500.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right. Next hour, an ad expert will break down the numbers for us. We'll talk about these type of attacks.

All right. Let's get back to business. Enjoy those falling oil prices while you can. They closed under $70 per barrel yesterday. But OPEC has called a meeting that could reverse the trend.

As for the markets, in Asia, they are a mixed bag. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed this week down more than 4 percent, while Japan's Nikkei showed a slight gain.

Now Wall Street didn't exactly have a grand opening today. Traders still might be a little woozy from yesterday, when the Dow went from a 380-point fall to a 400-point gain.

All right. Let's see how things are looking on Wall Street right this second. Susan Lisovicz with a quick look at markets.

Hey, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yesterday we saw an 800-point swing between highs and lows, Kyra. A week ago today, it was 1,000-point swing. Today it's just merely 450. In other words, it's another volatile day.

Dow opened lower, now it's higher. We had a lousy consumer confidence number. Biggest drop on record from the University of Michigan. We got much worse than expected construction starts. So that's a troubled sector, still; not seeing any signs of life there.

But we had Warren Buffett writing an op-ed piece in the "New York Times," saying he's buying stocks. And guess what? He's the richest man in the world, and that's where he's made his money. The stock market.

So right now, yes, we're seeing some buying on Wall Street. Some nice gains across the board, and I'll be back to talk about it further later on in the program, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan, thanks so much.

Well, before the markets opened this morning, President Bush appealed for patience in a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Bush said the credit market took a while to freeze, and it's going to take a while for them to thaw.

He also said the government's extraordinary actions in this crisis were necessary to keep things from getting even worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Had the government not acted, the hole in our financial system would have grown larger. Families and firms would have had an even tougher time getting loans. And ultimately, the government would have been forced to respond with even more drastic and costly measures later on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the price for a barrel of oil has been cut in half since peaking in July. At least one expert says that cheaper oil could be an economic stimulus itself. Gas prices are getting into $2.99 per gallon territory. That could be the national average by Monday. But don't think for a second that OPEC hasn't noticed what's going on.

Let's kick it up to Poppy Harlow in New York for an energy fix.

Hey, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey, Kyra.

Yes, OPEC, they weren't against those $147 a barrel gas prices we saw in July. And now that we see oil just over 70 bucks, they are calling an emergency meeting. They may decide to cut oil production. That's really been the direction that they've been going as we've seen these oil prices fall.

Now, of course, think back to your old economics teacher in high school. Supply and demand issues here. Less supply, if demand stays where it is, your price is going to go up.

Now why do you care about what OPEC does? Well, it's 13 nations. The oil ministers gather in Vienna. They talk about where production levels are. And those countries sit on about 40 percent of the world's oil reserves.

Now, it's interesting. An article in the "Wall Street Journal" talking about this today, saying countries that are OPEC members like Nigeria and Venezuela may be pushing a bit more for this emergency meeting, because their economies rely just a little bit more on that oil bringing a consistent revenue stream in.

But it could be good for people out there. Here's why. Back in the summer when a lot of people got those stimulus checks, that was part of a $170 billion stimulus package from the government. But this, with those oil prices falling, that's bringing you a stimulus at the gas station.

Here's how it works. Let's look through this. The Energy Policy Research Foundation says the recent slide in crude oil could amount to about $275 billion in stimulus. That's because that's the money you are paying. Every single time you go to the gas station, you're spending money there, and you're not spending it somewhere else.

The average American buys about 500 gallons of gas a year. At 4 bucks, that's $2,000 a year. At 3 bucks, that's $1,500 a year. So that's a savings of $500.

Now, don't get too excited, Kyra, because we don't know what OPEC is going to do next week -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Poppy Harlow, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Well, an accident scene in Oklahoma. A paramedic doing his job. Then punches fly as this guy shows up at the scene. We're going to tell you why, apparently, he got so mad.

And a beautiful pop star murdered in cold blood. A powerful Egyptian man on trial in her death. They're calling it the O.J. case of the Middle East. We're going to fill you in on its bizarre twists and turns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So will the real Sarah Palin please stand up? That's a question that could be soon answered on "Saturday Night Live."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: This just into CNN. Live pictures now from our affiliate, WTVC, out of Georgia here. You're looking at a law firm in Dalton, Georgia.

Apparently, some type of explosion happened at this law firm. It's near downtown Dalton, which is about an hour outside of Atlanta, Georgia. We're told there are multiple injuries at this point. Witnesses said that that blast went off about 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. So that's a couple of hours ago, and it blew out the windows.

The name of the law firm is McCanny (ph) Law Firm. This is video from earlier in the morning when it first happened.

Apparently, one of the individuals inside this law firm's clothes were actually burnt off. He was taken to the hospital. Officials say they do have a person in custody, and they were questioning him. So whether this was an explosion that took place because somebody was angry about a case, angry with a lawyer, we don't know. We don't have any details about the investigation at this point.

All we have are these live picture, coming from our affiliate. We're working details. We'll try and let you know exactly what happened here at the McCanny Law Firm.

An innocent little boy kidnapped this week in Las Vegas. And police say there's a definite drug nexus linking the boy's family and his abductors. They now have specific persons of interest in Cole Puffinburger's kidnapping. A nationwide Amber Alert has been issued for the 6-year-old grabbed on Wednesday by some men posing as cops.

People are usually grateful and helpful when paramedics arrive on the scene. But EMS and police working an accident in Oklahoma apparently moved too slow for one guy. Take a look at this.

He got out of his car, stripped to the waist, started screaming and then started punching, cocking at least one of the paramedics -- there you have it. And all this was caught on tape by news photogs, who'd come to shoot that crash scene.

Well, from what authorities could tell, the guy was pretty ticked off it was taking so long to reopen the road.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON DUNCAN, PARAMEDIC: We tried to talk to him, find out what was going on, and tried to calm him down. and once you're being attacked, you're taught to defend yourself, keep yourself safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you all right? I'm great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now Mr. No-shirt and saggy pants was arrested there for assault and battery, and drug possession, by the way.

It's the state that gave us hanging chads and overtime election. Now Florida is once again up for grabs. It's our battleground focus on this Friday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hi, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta and you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, as you know, Florida is our focus today among the battleground states in the presidential race. John McCain desperately needing its 27 electoral votes but he has a little work to do according to our latest statewide poll of polls.

Barack Obama leads McCain in Florida by four points in our survey, 49 percent to 45 percent. Let's find out what people are saying down in South Florida. John Zarrella standing by for us in Miami.

All right, John, what are you hearing?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, one thing we're hearing down here, you know how you guys up there use too much water, you take too many baths and showers? Well, that's become a political issue now. It's true. Senator Barack Obama has now decided that he is going to try his best to protect the Apalachicola Bay and Apalachicola River if he is, of course, elected president. Story of course, not enough water flowing down from up in Lake Lanier in Georgia and Alabama into the Apalachicola River and into the bay, so it's damaging the oysters there, because too much salt intrudes up from the Gulf of Mexico. That's become a campaign issue.

Who would have thought an oyster might decide the presidency? But it is true. That is, that also highlights the importance of every vote, because the Panhandle of Florida usually very Republican country. So we're going to have to see how that settles out, and if that sways any of those voters up there to vote for Barack Obama.

Now, early voting starts in Florida on Monday. And everybody is encouraging people to get out an early vote. We expect perhaps a 90 percent turnout in Florida. So early voting is critical. I got my sample ballot in the other day in the mail. And look at this.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh. So who are you voting for, John?

ZARRELLA: It's big.

PHILLIPS: Who are you going to vote for?

ZARRELLA: You know, there's a write-in space for the president. You know how I feel about you, Kyra. So I think I'm going to write you in as my nominee, my candidate for president.

PHILLIPS: And I love my oysters. For sure. Always take care of my oyster shuckers, that's for sure.

ZARRELLA: Absolutely. But you know what's interesting about that is 15 of the largest counties in Florida are going to the new optical scan machine. We've never used those down here before. That's the paper trail we had to have down here after the 2000 election. Now everybody's got them, but 15 of the largest counties going to that.

Again, another reason to get people to early vote, because they don't know how confusing that is going to end up to be. I know in Broward - in Palm Beach County they said that some 700,000 people up there have never used those machines before, and if they all end up going to the polls on November 4th, you get three tries. It will spit it back out if you don't do it right. You'll have to do it over again. Go back into the booth. So there could be awful long lines.

Now, the early voting, Governor Charlie Crist, of course a huge supporter of John McCain, he and Jim Greer, the head of the Florida Republican Party going on basically an airplane tour of the state Monday to get people to early vote, promoting that early voting and of course, promoting John McCain who, by the way, is in Florida, in Miami at this hour spiking at Florida International University and later today will be up in Melbourne. Four percentage points you mentioned, that's not much. This state is certainly up for grabs -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And we're going to check in on that John McCain rally as soon as it begins. Thanks so much, John. Great to see you. We'll share some oysters in a couple weeks.

ZARRELLA: My pleasure. PHILLIPS: OK. Reynolds Wolf, talking about wildfires in the West, he is going to join us from the severe weather center. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Wildfires on one end of the country. Rain on the other. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is watching for us today. Hey, Reynolds.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: In this week's presidential debate, questions arose over Senator John McCain's health plan. At the heart of it, a $5,000 tax credit to help families buy their own health insurance. Senator Barack Obama challenged that aspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The average cost of the health care insurance plan in America today is $5,800. I'm going to give them $5,000 to take with them wherever they want to go.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: By the way, the average policy costs about $12,000. Soap if you got $5,000 and it's going to cost you $12,000, that's a loss for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: We're doing a fact check today. Here is CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You just heard that number, $5,800. Did digging specifically on that. It does seem to be pretty accurate at least according to the American Health Insurance Plan. They did a study on this exact issue trying to figure out the exact cost of average health care. It ends up being about $5,799, so $5,800 like McCain said. You might imagine, there are some important caveats.

So take a look. On average $5,799. But in Massachusetts, the most expensive state, around $16,000. Almost $17,000. Lowest, Wisconsin, $3,000. As part of Senator McCain's plan, you'll be able to buy health care insurance from different programs. So even if you lived in Massachusetts might be able to buy health care in Wisconsin bringing down your costs.

Now the other big caveat here depends on you the individual and any pre-existing condition. Health care costs can go up dramatically for someone who has some sort of pre-existing illness. That's something that may not get covered by $5,000 alone.

Now the $12,000 number you just heard from Senator Obama, we figured out, think where they came from as well from a study out of the Kaiser Family Network looking specifically at employer-based coverage. When you get health care from your employer, average cost tends to be around $12,000.

The reason for the difference is, employers typically pool everyone together. Someone who's perfectly healthy with someone who has some pre-existing conditions bringing the overall average of health care costs up to about $12,000.

One of the questions we get a lot is, would the $5,000 tax credit Senator McCain talks about still work if you had employer based coverage? The answer seems to be yes after we've dug into this a bit. For example, when you get your employer based health care coverage you still pay tax on that. So you're getting the benefit but you have to pay tax on that. Senator McCain's tax credit, could be used to offset the tax costs. Also if you have a particular network but you decide to need to go out of network for a particular doctor, there's more costs associated with that. You could use the $5,000 tax credit for that or for co-pays when you pick a pharmaceutical to see a doctor.

That's the basic breakdown of how the health care plans work. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, Sanjay Gupta. Thanks so much.

Well, helping Mexico's poorest of the poor rebuild their lives. You'll meet one of our CNN Heroes straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, they help the homeless, prison inmates and storm victims. They are the CNN Heroes. You've been nominating them for months. Now a blue ribbon panel has narrowed the list of heroes for 2008 down to 10 honorees. Here on CNN NEWSROOM we're going to introduce to you each one of them. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIE DA SILVA, CNN HERO: My mission is to educate AIDS orphans in Malawi.

CAROLYN LECROY, CNN HERO: Started this project so that incarcerated parents can keep in touch with their kids.

PHYMEAN NOUN, CNN HERO: I recruit children from this dump to attend school at my organization.

YOHANNES GEBREGEORGIS, CNN HERO: Bringing medicine to the children of Ethiopia.

VIOLA VAUGHN, CNN HERO: I came to Senegal from Detroit, Michigan. I started a girls' education and self-sufficiency program.

MARIA RUIZ, CNN HERO: I crossed the border to help people (INAUDIBLE). ANNE MAHLUM, CNN HERO: We use running to help the homeless move forward.

LIZ MCCARTNEY, CNN HERO: I'm helping families rebuild in St. Bernard Parish.

TAD AGOGLIA, CNN HERO: I am putting together a crew that stays on the road 12 months out of the year, responds to disasters all over America free of charge.

DAVID PUCKETT, CNN HERO: I bring artificial limbs and braces to those in need to Mexico.

ANNOUNCER: Your vote will help one become the CNN Hero of the Year. Vote now -- CNN.com/heroes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: One of those heroes being honored this year is David Puckett. He travels to Mexico and provides free prosthetic legs and arms to the poorest of the poor.

And it's an honor to have him with us today. Good to see you.

PUCKETT: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: I wanted to start the interview a certain way. Since we have all the props. Just kind of give me an idea. These are all -- A lot for the kids. Obviously. Tell me what we have in our hands?

PUCKETT: This is a below the knee prosthesis, below the knee for a child 10 years old.

PHILLIPS: You make it colorful and fun.

PUCKETT: We try to make it ...

PHILLIPS: Must be scary for a child to ...

PUCKETT: Sure. If you can encourage a child to wear the prosthesis by making it fun, then it helps them that much more.

PHILLIPS: What about the stuffed animals. I notice you have all kinds of little -- is this what you bring to the kids?

PUCKETT: We take artificial limbs or fitted braces. Kids' toy, clothing. Whatever we can fit in suitcases or in cases taking down with us.

PHILLIPS: Great. It's amazing when I just look how small these are. Amazing. I mean what are the majority of the problems that these kids are dealing with? Is it something that happened to them? Is it birth defects?

PUCKETT: Similar to the United States. Many are born with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy. Many have accidents, many undergo surgery because of diabetes with adults, of course, or trauma.

I've fit two arms with some patients in the last few weeks actually that were attacked, a machete attack, had his arm cut off. We helped get his arm back on. Doing very well, back in the mainstream.

PHILLIPS: Let's backtrack a little bit. Always a story behind a story why someone does mission work. And you were 19 years old and you lost your dad. And you lost your focus. Tell me what happened and how that led you to Mexico for the first time?

PUCKETT: It's tough when you're a kid. Because I was kid. When you lose your mentor, your idol, your close friend, and at that particular time in my life I had a close friendship. I don't think my dad really knew that much nor my mom. But I really idolized my father. After my dad passed away it led me to a place where I lost focus. Where was I, who was I? What was I going to be in life? Because here I was a young man. We never got a chance to talk about things like marriage and career, other than that when you're a young teen.

So that really took me for a tailspin at that particular time in my life.

PHILLIPS: So your mom, an incredible role model. She's very involved in church and you did turn to the church on many levels. You also did go to church but you went on a mission trip to Mexico and how did that move you? The Latin people and the culture?

PUCKETT: My dad was my idol with respect to strength and perseverance. My dad always said the early bird gets the worms. I was the youngest of the four boys getting up early. He'd say, David, you're going to make it some day. My dad really encouraged me to persevere. And my dad went through cancer for three years.

So we were there alongside him. He taught me to fight. My mom taught me faith and she taught me hope and love. And to this day my mom's still my hero with respect to faith, hope and love, because what greater virtues can you exhibit to other mankind, or friends and family?

PHILLIPS: Amen. I want to talk about some of these kids. This one stole my heart. Liliana. Tell me about her. Am I saying her name right? Liliana?

PUCKETT: Liliana.

PHILLIPS: Liliana. Tell me about her.

PUCKETT: Liliana is a beautiful little girl, and the first time I saw her she just lit me up with a smile. I loved her. We brought clothing down there. She fit this yellow dress to the T. It was beautiful on her. Born with cerebral palsy. So she has two non- functioning lower extremities. She hasn't been standing because she hasn't had any braces. So we're making braces to help her stand. So it was just a pleasure for me to be able meet her. Her little smile, that's the kind of child you fall in love with and she captures your heart.

PHILLIPS: I don't know how you Keep adopting these children. All right. Christopher, another one that stole our hearts. You sent me a picture of him. Tell me about him.

PUCKETT: Christopher's 10 years old. Christopher was born with polio, and so his left lower extremity doesn't work well and so we're making him a long leg brace to help him to stand. Beautiful little boy. His speech is impaired. But his understanding is there. So he smiles at you and he winks at you. Captures your heart.

PHILLIPS: Finally, I mean, you have risen up on so many levels from your own personal issues that you dealt with as a teenager to even watching all of these kids and these families rise up. I mean, that's got to be such an inspiration for you to keep going and keep wanting to do this?

PUCKETT: It is. When you're younger, you don't really know what you're going to do. When you get older and you begin to focus and you begin to put the pieces together, hopefully everything comes together. Emily Dickinson said we never know how high we are until we're called to rise. And until we're true to form our statures touch the skies."

And I've heard that over and over in my life, because I've loved reading Emily Dickinson, all my life, but I have never realized what that meant to step up to help somebody and to work with somebody and help them overcome and to overcome your obstacles and the difficulties in life.

And I have been able to do that in my life with my faith and my hope and my goal is to do that in southeastern Mexico and we do it every two months.

PHILLIPS: And we are watching you do it. I want to encourage the folks to logon to your Web site. How do I say it? Pipo Inc. How do I say that?

PUCKETT: Pipo Missions, Inc.

PHILLIPS: Pipo Missions Inc. Folks can donate and they can volunteer their time and support what you are doing in your ministry and your mission there?

PUCKETT: Yes, we are in southeastern Mexico and we go every two months, you can go to our Web site, pipoinc.com, go to the missions page, Mexican missions page, and we have been doing this for 10 years and we will continue doing it. So we look forward to it.

PHILLIPS: I know we will all keep reading Emily Dickinson, too. I know my producer loves Emily Dickinson so here we go.

David Puckett, thank you so much.

PUCKETT: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: And don't forget to vote for your favorite CNN Heroes, CNN.com/heroes, because there are amazing choices and here on CNN NEWSROOM, we will profile each of them live until the big night. Anderson Cooper will announce the winner at an all-star tribute right here on CNN, that's Thanksgiving night.

Both her music and her outlook are beautiful.

Born with a rare disorder her physical therapy became her career. Meet a truly noteworthy concert pianist. She will change your life.

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PHILLIPS: Well, a world renowned pianist is playing concerts here in the states, but it is her message and not her music that she hopes that the audiences will remember.

South Korean Hi-Ya-Lee (ph) was born with four fingers, two on each hand. Her mom started her on the piano at age six and as a kind of physical therapy, well, she played piano and now at age 23, she is making her living at performing and she hopes that other people with disabilities can learn to celebrate their gifts instead of lamenting on what they don't have.

So do Americans really care what folks around the world think? CNN Election Express producer Josh Rubin put that question to some voters in Hempstead, New York, where John McCain and Barack Obama held their final presidential debate two nights ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH RUBIN, CNN PRODUCER: A lot of other countries are watching our presidential election carefully. We are in Hempstead, New York, and asking if the opinions of foreign countries influences their vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it might.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all. We should be concerned with ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My decision is clear and other people won't affect that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the biggest problems in the last eight years of the presidency is that we have not cared about our status as a world leader.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have an effect, but they should not have an effect or opinion on how we run our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that a country that is way advanced than us in certain issues about what I care about definitely leans to one candidate or another, I will definitely consider it and make my decision.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I made my decision a while ago, so I am not very concerned about what other people think, I guess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that politics is a local thing, and I think that, you know, it is the type of thing where, you know, we have to pick the person that is best for us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. We are going to take a quick break and more from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.

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