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American Morning
Obama Administration Takes Shape; Clinton's Future: Secretary of State or Senator?; Auto Relief in Doubt; Special Interest Groups Puts Pressure on Obama; Pirate Attack Secrets; The First Lady of France Striking a Chord on Late Night Television
Aired November 20, 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)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): New faces to Team Obama. Big cabinet picks announced.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I can't recall a president-elect naming any major cabinet offices before December 1st. I think he's really actually moving at quite a rapid pace.
CHETRY: Is Hillary Clinton next?
Plus, how do you overtake a vessel this big?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can either pretend to be officials that are seeking to board. They can masquerade as coast guards.
CHETRY: Speedboat against the mother ship. How pirates attack on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: We just saw our wonderful hairdresser just run away.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: There are mice in the studio. How about that?
CHETRY: Oh, boy, I'll tell you what. We have a lot going on, on this Thursday, November 20th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for being with us.
We begin this morning with breaking news about your money. It's not getting any better. The battered financial sector taking another beating as we speak. Overseas, investors are abandoning the markets in droves.
Japan's Nikkei closing down more than six percent. Hong Kong down four percent. The downturn following another 427-point plunge on Wall Street, forcing the Dow below 8,000. That's the first time it's been there since 2003.
But if there is a silver lining, any kind of good news in these tough economic times, it's the price of gasoline. It's down three cents overnight to $2.02 a gallon. The current national average is about half of what it was over the summer.
And a warning for parents this morning. All of those fast food television commercials may be a diet disaster for your children. Researchers in New York who studied years of government and local advertising data say banning ads for fast food restaurants would have a dramatic effect on childhood obesity rate. It would cut them, listen to this, by 18 percent. And because young children who are overweight often become older children who are overweight would also have a pretty profound reduction to a number of overweight children, too, cutting that number by 14 percent.
CHETRY: Well, this morning, the shape of the Obama administration is coming into focus. If President-elect Obama gets his way, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will be Health and Human Services secretary. Now he was an adviser to the Obama campaign and if confirmed would spearhead Obama's efforts toward universal health care.
Also, current Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. She could be the pick for Homeland Security. She has also worked on Obama's campaign and has taken a tough stance on border security.
And we still have the ongoing drama surrounding Senator Hillary Clinton for secretary of state. CNN's Ed Henry is live in Chicago.
Ed, I know there's been a lot of behind-the-scenes back and forth. What are you hearing about how this process is moving forward, if, indeed, it is?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran. The latest wrinkle the Democrats are buzzing about is the fact that all of a sudden Senate leaders are working on the possibility of creating some sort of a new role for Senator Clinton if she ends up not becoming secretary of state. A lot of buzz that that might deal with health care, giving her some sort of a prominent role in helping to shape health legislation, which is obviously one of her passions on the domestic front.
What people are unclear about right now is whether this is just a fallback position to sort of cushion the blow if the vetting does not go well, or in the end the president-elect does not offer the secretary of state job. Or is she genuinely conflicted as some people close to her have suggested about whether she, in fact, would want to take the job if it's officially offered by Barack Obama? That's what's unclear right now.
Now, if she were to stay in the Senate and work on health legislation, she'll spend a lot of time working with Tom Daschle. As you noted, our sources are saying he is the president-elect's pick to be Health and Human Services secretary. What's interesting about that is he also negotiated a dual role so he won't just be a cabinet secretary but sort of the point person, a health care czar, if you will in the White House, to make sure that he could consolidate his power, have the clout to really deal with all health related issues for the president-elect. So that's going to be very interesting to watch. And it's also a signal by putting a power player like Daschle in that role, suggests Barack Obama plans to make health reform a major issue next year.
And finally, you also mentioned Janet Napolitano, a very prominent governor of Arizona. She is the president-elect's pick, according to our sources to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. This is a monumental task. This is a vast bureaucracy created after 2001.
It's going to take a big job to go in there, take a look at what needs to be reformed. And also, immigration reform handled by that secretary. She obviously has experience coming from a border state of Arizona dealing with what is a very thorny issue, Kiran.
CHETRY: Absolutely. All right. Well, let's get back for a second to Hillary Clinton. What about the latest on Bill Clinton's vetting by the Obama people?
HENRY: Senior Democrats are saying that he is essentially in private, made it clear that he will do anything he can and that he's agreeing to a lot of the hurdles that the Obama camp has sort of set up about the vetting process. So we've been talking about it so much for the past few days. And, in fact, yesterday in public, Bill Clinton was in New York and said look, I'll do whatever it takes.
The question now, though, is whether it's going to be offered by the president-elect and then, again, whether Hillary Clinton is going to accept it. What's fascinating to watch is this whole drama play out. It's sort of overshadowing a lot of the other cabinet posts. And so the Obama camp in the next few days is going to have to move quickly to get this dealt with one way or the other. Otherwise it really runs the risk of overshadowing, you know, the whole rest of the cabinet, Kiran.
CHETRY: Absolutely. And I'm sure it doesn't come as much of a surprise. I mean, any time the Clintons are involved, there's a lot of intrigue surrounding it for sure.
All right. Thanks so much, Ed.
HENRY: Absolutely.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Well, the state of the $25 billion emergency loan to America's automakers appears to be fading pretty quickly. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid canceled the test vote today.
Outraged lawmakers yesterday hammered executives for the big three over their salaries and also revelations that when they traveled to Washington they did it in style.
CNN's Kate Bolduan is live on Capitol Hill. Kate, they didn't seem to appreciate the fact that all three of them pulled up in private jets and now the clock appears to be running down here on the big three.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And it does look like time is running out. As you mentioned, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he put off. He's reversed his plan and put off a plan showdown vote on the auto industry bailout. While no one is saying that maybe a surprise could happen by the end of the week, it's starting to look very unlikely that Congress will be able to strike a deal in time.
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BOLDUAN (voice-over): The big three auto executives back on Capitol Hill for a second round trying to convince Congress to sign off on a $25 billion emergency loan.
RUCHARD WAGONER, CHAIRMAN & CEO, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION: We're here very simply because our revenue has been devastated.
ROBERT NARDELLI, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CHRYSLER LLC: This isn't about losing a company. This is about losing an industry, an industry that has an overarching effect on literally thousands of small businesses.
BOLDUAN: But there was little sympathy from lawmakers like Democratic Congressman Michael Capuano, who accused the big three of making "stupid decisions for 25 years."
REP. MICHAEL CAPUANO (D), MASSACHUSETTS: But damn it, I don't want to help again and get stuck back in our ear at home that you took the money and you blew it.
BOLDUAN: The auto executives also had to contend with the public relations gaffe and questions about why they flew to Washington on their expensive corporate jets to ask for taxpayer dollars.
REP. GARY ACKERMAN (D), NEW YORK: There's a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C. and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they're going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses.
BOLDUAN: The companies said it's standard travel policy for security reasons. Meanwhile, lawmakers remain deadlock over where the bailout money would come from. Senate Democrats would use funds from the financial industry bailout. Republicans want to use money from an existing loan program meant to help automakers produce more fuel- efficient vehicles. And some Detroit supporters are scrambling to bridge the divide.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: We should not leave without trying to find common ground between those two pots of money, both of which exists. And we're working it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: Now, there is a compromise proposal that is bouncing around the Senate. But even if it garners broad support there, it doesn't look like it's going to go very far, John, because a senior House Democratic leadership, they told CNN, that it's a non-starter on the House, saying that the speaker has made clear it's not going to fly.
ROBERTS: Speaking of flying, there were all kind of metaphors that were flying around yesterday about the way that they flew in. I saw one lawmaker said it's like going to a soup kitchen in a top hat and tails.
BOLDUAN: Yes. It definitely took them off message as they would hope to not have been yesterday.
ROBERTS: Yes.
BOLDUAN: It definitely was an ironic picture to be painting.
ROBERTS: A lot of this stuff is all about perception.
Kate Bolduan for us in Capitol Hill this morning. Kate, thanks so much.
BOLDUAN: Thanks, John.
CHETRY: Developing in California this morning, the state's highest court is now announcing it will hear legal challenges to overturn Proposition 8. That was the voter ban on same-sex marriages that was put to the voters this past election. In the meantime, though, the court said that the initiative can be enforced. And last night on Anderson Cooper, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom explained why he is optimistic that the court will side with those who oppose Proposition 8.
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MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM, SAN FRANCISCO: The court has in nine previous occasion over the last hundred years made a determination in three of those instances that amendments or, in fact, not amendments but actual revisions we believe there is some continuity to those decisions and that gives us confidence in the context of this one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Proposition 8 passed earlier this month with 52 percent of the vote. Some 20,000 same-sex marriages now hang in the balance in that state.
ROBERTS: Well, right now, there is no end in sight to the dizzying market dives overseas. Their down sharply. It's your money at stake. So what's fueling this latest selloff. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning.
And give me some change. Special interest groups are lining up to cash in in the change that is coming to Washington. But can and will they get a return on their investment in the new president-elect?
Nine minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." We're in the Asia Pacific region. We are seeing the Wall Street domino effect.
Stocks tumbled across Asia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul. All closing down to the day. The Nikkei closed down nearly seven percent driving this down day bad news on the U.S. economy and uncertainty over the fate of the big three automakers. And already investors are bracing for a tough day as futures are pointing to another rough day on Wall Street -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Kyung Lah for us. Thanks so much.
Christine Romans here "Minding Your Business" as well. So we saw the auto bailout sort of dissolve into nothing yesterday. And are the markets reacting to that?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was a huge down day in stocks yesterday. And overall, you just got concerns of an ongoing economic crisis. You've got concerns that Detroit is in crisis. You got Ford and GM stocks plunged yesterday. Ford was down 25 percent, I think. GM was down 10 percent, and the market now is at the lowest level again in 5 1/2 years.
These are new lows for the crisis for the Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P. A lot of folks have been hoping that October was going to be the worse of it, and at least the market would be able to tread water but that's just not happening. Look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year, down some 40 percent now.
What this means for you is that the bull market after September 11th, after the recovery of September 11th, the bull market from 2002 to 2006, has now been completely wiped away and we are back to the levels we saw earlier in the decade. 2003 now is what we're looking at. March 2003 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the other averages is 5 1/2 year lows.
Why now? Why today? What was in the impetus of the selling?
ROBERTS: Why not?
ROMANS: Why not? It's more like -- I mean, honestly, John, this is the new normal. When there's a reason to sell, people will sell. And the money is flying into the safe haven like the two-year note yield is down to just over one percent. I mean, people are willing to take one percent, park their money for two years rather than be involved in the stock market. That just shows you how nervous people are, how concerned they are about credit default.
People are losing their jobs. They are defaulting on their mortgage. Every day more people are defaulting on their mortgage and they're defaulting on other kinds of loans as well. So the financial sector, the financial stocks are really hammered.
ROBERTS: And now we got deflation, although it's led by a decline in energy prices.
ROMANS: Disinflation. Right. They call it disinflation. They just don't think we're to the deflation point yet. But disinflation, that means that prices are going down. That's the silver lining of a recession. That means --
ROBERTS: Silver lining for consumers but certainly not for people who are producing.
ROMANS: That's right. But at some point, the hope is that economic theory would say that when you have disinflation and prices are falling, then that attracts people to come back in.
Now, you know, 5.8 percent -- the cost of living adjustment for seniors, that's what they're going to get on their Social Security checks. But even though prices are coming down, the good news is seniors are still going to get a big bump next year.
ROBERTS: $368 a month is going to start looking pretty good.
ROMANS: For some people, it really will.
ROBERTS: I know. All right. Thanks.
Of course, got all this bad news in the economy. Well, let's get some good news for you out here. As the markets continue to slam our 401(k)s, everyone is worried about having to work until they're 100. But in case you're worried about it, here's some proof that you can actually do it and do it with a smile.
Meet Nellie Williams. She just hit the century mark and still shows up to work as a proofreader in a little newspaper in Oak Harbor, Washington. Look at that. She's blowing out the birthday candles in her cake. She was even there on her birthday yesterday soaking up congratulations from co-workers and sharing her secret for a long and happy life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NELLIE WILLIAMS, 100 YEAR-OLD PROOFREADER: Three meals a day, I guess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And hard work?
WILLIAMS: Oh, of course. That goes without saying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You intend to keep working now that you're 100 years old? You're going to keep right on working?
WILLIAMS: If the good Lord is willing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: She looks like most 80-year-olds.
CHETRY: Yes. She looks great. ROBERTS: So she talks about three meals a day, right? What keeps her going? A big bag of Cheetos every day at the office.
CHETRY: We just saw the big pile that she got for her birthday.
ROMANS: I love the computer in the background. I mean, imagine what she's seen change in the newspaper business over the past --
ROBERTS: She is a spry lass for an age of 100.
ROMANS: That's excellent.
ROBERTS: Good for her.
ROMANS: Working because she wants to, I hope, and not because she has to.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Yes. Let's hope we can all do that.
Sixteen minutes now after the hour.
CHETRY: Campaign debt.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's kind of saying, hey guys, we expect something in return here.
PACO FABIAN, AMERICA'S VOICE: Absolutely. Absolutely. As Latinos, we certainly expect policies that will be good for our families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Special interest groups step up the pressure on the future president. A look at what they want.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." The holiday season is almost upon us and one group of people is making a list and checking it twice.
Lobbyists and special interest groups are lining up with their requests for President-elect Barack Obama. Jim Acosta has been taking a look at what they want. He joins us now live in Washington.
And, Jim, I guess they're looking at him as "Santabama" here.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
ROBERTS: Looking for some gifts under their lobbyist trees this year.
ACOSTA: We're about to find out who's been naughty and who's been nice, John.
Special interest groups are looking for a seat at Barack Obama's table and they all want in on the new democratic agenda. Their message? Give me some change.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Barack Obama didn't get there all by himself. He had help from a slew of Democratic-leaning special interest groups that now want some changes of their own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: There has been a sleeping giant in America that has been dormant for far too long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: A group called America's Voice which wants immigration reform is running a Web video touting Latino power. They're not losing sight of Mr. Obama's whopping 67 percent of the Hispanic vote.
PACO FABIAN, AMERICA'S VOICE: We've seen, you know, Latinos voting in record numbers and turning some states blue that were previously red.
ACOSTA: When you put out a video that says a sleeping giant is now awake, it's kind of saying hey guys, we expect something in return here.
FABIAN: Absolutely. Absolutely. As Latinos, we certainly expect policies that will be good for our families.
ACOSTA: A seat at the Obama table is getting harder to come by with organizations representing big business, unions and the young. Just to name a few all squeezing in with their hands out.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: In order to fix our economic crisis and rebuild our middle class, we need to fix our health care system too.
ACOSTA: Leading groups seeking universal health care is running an ad featuring the president-elect himself.
ACOSTA: Is it really politically possible? Well, Harry Truman tried this.
RICHARD KIRSCH, HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW: Here's what I believe and I tell myself this every day. If you told me that a black guy named Barack Obama could be elected president, I would have said no, that's not possible. I think it's possible we're going to get health care for everybody in this country with the new president. ACOSTA: Mr. Obama's new chief of staff says they are listening. He just told a "Wall Street Journal" forum a big push on health care is in the works.
RAHM EMANUEL, CHIEF OF STAFF TO PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: Things that we had postponed for too long that were long term are now immediate and must be dealt with.
ACOSTA: But with the enormous challenges facing the next president, not every special interest will be so lucky.
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGY: I don't think Senator Obama owes anything to anyone except the people who voted for him. And not everyone is going to get everything they want, certainly not right away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: But not for a lack of trying. A number of groups pushing for a new fight on immigration reform plan to march on the Capital, one day after Barack Obama's inaugural -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Pirates secret.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their ability to use some of the ships that they captured already to enable them to capture larger ships.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: How renegades on a boat the size of your car can take over a ship three football fields long. An exclusive looking at the tactics of Somali pirates.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the "Most Politics in the Morning." The mystery continues this morning over Senator Hillary Clinton's future. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, bending over backwards to try to help her get the secretary of state job. But does she want it?
Joining me now to talk about it from Washington is Jay Newton- Small. She's the congressional correspondent for "Time" magazine. Jay, thanks for being with us this morning.
So we've been hearing this buzz over the past week. Now we're hearing that perhaps Hillary Clinton could be hedging a little bit about whether or not she wants this job. What's going on?
JAY NEWTON-SMALL, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, "TIME": Well, certainly, you know, the Senate this morning you're hearing Democratic sources say maybe there's a bigger role for her there. Maybe if she wants to stay, they can figure out something for her to do.
I know that a week or two ago, she went to Teddy Kennedy and asked for a subcommittee chairmanship on the health education committee that Teddy Kennedy runs. And he was like -- and he actually said no, sorry, I'm not going to give that to you. Later on, he did come back and say we'll give you a spot, you know, leading one of the working groups on health care reform.
So she did try to expand her role in the Senate when she first came back and then was sort of shut down and now, you know, with all these rumors that she might be secretary of state, perhaps this is helping her leverage in a way, her role in the Senate and getting a bigger role in the Senate. So either way, her job prospects are good.
CHETRY: I got you. So you're saying that she's basically going back to the Democratic leadership and saying look, I could take this state position. What have you got for me that's better? What would be the end game or the trajectory we should be looking for there?
NEWTON-SMALL: Well, I mean, either way, look, on the one hand she becomes secretary of state in a historic administration and she's, you know, it's a great role for her. On the other hand, she goes back to the Senate with an enhanced -- enhanced sort of profile and enhanced portfolio, gets to do things that she didn't thoroughly get to do before this job offer. So, you know, she's kind of leveraging one off the other and she could, you know, make out pretty well for this whole situation.
CHETRY: In the meantime, sucking a lot of oxygen out of the room as it comes to, you know, Obama's transition. All we've been talking about is Clintons, Clintons, Clintons. Is this making the Obama's camp a little bit nervous?
NEWTON-SMALL: Well, I mean, there's a lot of Clintons and you know, on Clinton talk and everything, I mean, the whole primary is the Clintons. This is again Clinton, Clinton, Clinton.
Certainly, the news this morning, you know, he's named Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services. He's named Janet Napolitano, we were hearing, at the Department of Homeland Security. But is that the top news of the morning? No. It's what's Hillary Clinton going to do?
CHETRY: Right.
NEWTON-SMALL: All about Hillary. So I think he definitely needs at this point to clear it off the table, get something resolved and then move on.
CHETRY: Speaking of those things, you talk about Tom Daschle, Janet Napolitano. We're hearing more about some of the White House counsel. A lot of Clinton folks that were in Bill Clinton's White House and also a lot of people that certainly aren't strangers to Washington, a lot of Washington insiders. What happened to change we can believe in as we're seeing this take shape? I mean, is he going to be facing some criticism from people who said, look, I trusted you to shape things up, to bring in some new faces?
NEWTON-SMALL: Sure. I mean, Janet Napolitano is a pretty new face. But if Hillary is named secretary of state, I mean, it changes the entire calculation of how he chooses the rest of the cabinet. I mean, I don't think it's possible for him to then choose let's say Larry Summers as secretary of the treasury because that's yet another Clinton person. And I think the rest of the cabinet you really got to start looking at other people, fresh faces, someone different, someone new.
So, I mean, I think a lot of the calculation is based off of how that slot is filled, and then how it falls from there. But, yes, I think a lot of announcements we're going to hear in the coming days will maybe tend to be less Hillary people or less Clinton people.
CHETRY: All right. And are you getting the sense that Barack Obama wants Hillary Clinton in his cabinet?
NEWTON-SMALL: Look --
CHETRY: Personally?
NEWTON-SMALL: From all of what I've heard from sources, you know, in the Obama administration -- in the Obama shadow administration or, you know, the transitional government is that if she wants the job it's hers and it's really her decision to make. In many ways, that's, you know, that's the best way of doing it because you're accusing her supporters by saying let's make this her decision and people aren't going to be angry then if he doesn't offer it to her. And it makes it her choice and her decision on what she wants to do with her own future.
CHETRY: Jay Newton-Small, congressional correspondent with "Time" magazine, thanks.
ROBERTS: Twenty-nine minutes now after the hour. And here are this morning's top stories.
Part of the Obama transition team is headed to the Pentagon today to meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. They will be discussing making the power shift in January as smooth as possible.
Gates is rumored to possibly stay on in the new administration. The president-elect has promised to include at least one Republican in his cabinet.
The possibility of a lifeline for America's ailing automakers is beginning to look a little thin today. Late yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid canceled the test vote on the proposed $25 billion bailout. The decision was made after the CEOs of GM, Chrysler and Ford spent a second day on Capitol Hill facing increased criticism over their private jets and salaries. And if you're worried about all the time that your teenager spends online, listen up because it may not be wasted time. A study by the MacArthur Foundation finds that kids who use social Internet sites like MySpace and Facebook are actually developing important technical and social skills, skills that are needed to succeed.
Researchers say the connections that young people make are now an essential part of growing up in the new media age. Critics have talked social networking a "distraction" and in some cases downright dangerous.
The crackdown on pirates off of the coast of Africa is getting a boost of muscle this morning. The Russian Navy will send additional warships to the region to beef up security along shipping routes that have become hot spots for hijacking. The news comes a day after the Indian Navy sank a so-called pirate mother ship in the Gulf of Aden, just north of Somalia.
Now with 17 big boats still being controlled by pirates, you have to wonder how do these rag tag rebels pull off their high-sea captures? Our David McKenzie has been looking into it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pirates posing on a captured vessel. Their weapons proudly displayed. These are the ragged buccaneers bringing in millions of loot. It's so compelling, because it's so unlikely.
Let's put it into perspective. Pirates nabbed the gigantic super tanker the Sirius Star. It's longer than three football fields and captured it with a skiff as big as this. It's about as long as your car. So, how did they do it?
WILLIAM GEDDES, SECURITY EXPERT: The problems that many tankers have when they are actually approached by pirates is that they will present threat on a number of levels. They can either pretend to be officials that are seeking to board the actual ship for inspections. They can masquerade as the Coast Guard.
MCKENZIE: And they can always rely on scare tactics. They use fast skiffs with RPG's and assault rifles. A well placed shot with one of these could puncture the hull of boats that can carry dangerous cargo. So, the crew is usually happy to sit it out on a hijack, waiting for ransom, rather than risk blowing themselves up. And the crew can now be taken in a much wider area.
GEDDES: What we are seeing with these Somalian pirates is their ability to use some of the ships that they've captured already to enable them to reach further afield and into deeper nautical miles.
MCKENZIE: They are called mother ships. And maritime agencies warn that their use is expanding the pirate reach and the pirate threat.
(on camera): So until they can be reigned in, these unlikely ocean hijackers may still have the tactics and the territorial reach to take on as many Goliaths as they can get their hands on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE: Well, John, you know, those tactics are pretty effective. Though they are warships from America, they are warships from Russia, there are Indian warships there, and now it seems like more Russian ships are going there until they can figure out a system to help this Somali situation, I don't think this piracy problem will go away.
John?
ROBERTS: It's amazing that they can have that many warships in the region. And these pirates can still carry off these hijackings. So that's what's being done sort of militarily and from a security standpoint. Is there anything that can be done diplomatically about this?
MCKENZIE: Well, the U.N. Secretary General last night made a strong statement saying this has to be sorted out. I mean, I guess people are listening. Six representatives of a regional countries in the Middle East are meeting in Cairo because obviously it's the mid- East initially that will be affected the most business-wise, especially if the pirates continue to go after oil tankers.
ROBERTS: Yes. Now, there's some talk that in order to avoid that area, David, that they may have to go all the way around the Horn of Africa, which would add an awful lot of expense to shipping goods around the world. David McKenzie for us in Nairobi. Thanks so much, David.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Obama mania. The media frenzy surrounding the president-elect -- landed him on the cover of every major magazine, with talks of his every move on every major network. So how long will the honeymoon last?
Also, a timely project. More runways open at the nation's busiest airports. We're going to take a look at how it may affect your flight home on Thanksgiving. It's 33 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": President-elect Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha got a personal tour yesterday of their new rooms at the White House from Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Bush twins. It was a private tour. No press was invited. But from the looks of this picture taken by the official White House photographer, it seems to have gone very well. It turns out Sasha is a natural --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Yes. The Obama girls certainly are everywhere in the media these days, as is their mom and dad or are their mom and dad. In fact, the Obamas have become a media sensation from magazines to television. You can't turn around these days without seeing everything Obama everywhere. CNN's Howard Kurtz has got a look at all of that glowing press.
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HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, CNN'S RELIABLE RESOURCES (on camera): Every newly-elected president gets the star treatment but Barack Obama is in a class by himself. Media outlets can't get enough of him and some are trying to make a few bucks in the process.
(voice-over): The only real controversy, which presidential giant does he most resemble. "Time" cast Obama as FDR, while "Newsweek" likened him to Lincoln. It's not just the news magazines like "Time," which is owned by CNN's parent company, it's the feature magazine such as Time Warner's "People," "US Weekly", "Rolling Stone" and others that are treating him as celebrity in chief. And the sometimes gushing coverage extends to Michelle, Sasha and Malia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This First Family bumps fist, sports BlackBerrys, races the cover of fashion magazines and even listens to hip-hop.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Imagine, you're Michelle Obama about to decorate the White House, your personal style one for the history books.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is often compared to a First Lady best known for couture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sasha and Malia Obama visited the White House to check out their new digs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have managed this to sort of engulf pop culture at large. And people aren't even thinking about Brad and Angelina anymore. It's all about Barack and Michelle.
KURTZ: Some pundits say the Obama clan like Bill Cosby's old TV family, "The *" could change the way African-Americans are viewed. But are the media crossing the line from chronicling history to merchandising it. Major newspapers are selling hundreds of thousands of special editions about Obama's victory.
"Newsweek" and "Time" are hawking commemorative editions. NBC is coming out with a DVD titled "Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story. An HBO documentary is in the works as are a slew of Obama books. And the tone? Check out these headlines. Generation "O". Obamaism, it's a kind of religion. Bamelot, that of course to play on Jackie Kennedy's Camelot. Some critics on the right say the celebratory mood has gone too far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's almost like the messiah descending from the heavens.
KURTZ: But the president-elect also produces heavenly rating. Sunday's "60 Minutes" sat down with the new first couple, drew 25 million viewers, the program's biggest audience in decade. All this after a campaign in which studies showed Obama drew far more favorable coverage than John McCain.
(on camera): Journalists say they are just feeding the public's appetite for Obama mania, but they also seem to be creating that appetite and cashing in on it. Howard Kurtz, CNN, Washington.
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ROBERTS: Praying for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're standing in front of the Treasury building to pray. To blow the trumpet of prayer so our nation's leaders will wake up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The group that's looking to the bible for answers to the housing crisis. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, some incredible images that we want to show you. This is one of our iReporters. This is very creative.
It's a time lapse, really, of fall foliage right along Little Mulberry River in Arkansas. It's from Brian Emfinger (ph). And the pictures were taken every hour of every day from October until last week, and so you can see right there how fall came and went. How about that? Beautiful.
Rob Marciano at the weather center in Atlanta.
Pretty creative iReport. How about that one?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I like that. I like that. Maybe, if he keeps it going and, you know, if it gets cold enough, I doubt it, but if it gets cold enough, maybe we'll see that river or lake freeze over. That'll be nice to look at.
CHETRY: That's true.
MARCIANO: Look at this, Kiran. We broke out the thermometer, the frozen thermometer. So, this has been in hiding since about February last year. And we've got a reinforcing shot of cold air that's driving down into an area that has already seen some drastically cold temperatures, including the South and the Midwest. We'll start with Akron -- 14 yesterday. Charlotte, North Carolina, they had some snow flurries, 18 degrees. Jackson, Kentucky, 19. Columbia, South Carolina, 22. And a record low yesterday morning in Tallahassee, Florida of 25 degrees.
So, already cold and, as we mentioned, a reinforcing blast of it coming through. You haven't hit the real cold air across the I-95 Corridor, but certainly cold enough for snow. And there have been rumors of some snow in the "Big Apple." A shot taken just a little while ago. There's the Tower Camp (ph), courtesy of our affiliate, WABC. And there the flakes are flying. I don't know where the cameras, but it certainly is high. Wondering if it's -- I don't know, Empire is where we're looking. I see the Chrysler building. Anyway, it's high.
CHETRY: You know what that is?
MARCIANO: What is -- where are we?
CHETRY: That's -- John shredded some papers before the show and threw them out of the window. It's not snow.
MARCIANO: My goodness.
CHETRY: No, you're right. A couple of random flakes.
MARCIANO: Yes.
CHETRY: There you have it. But we haven't seen anything stick yet. But -- just a matter of time.
MARCIANO: Getting in the mood. No doubt about that.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
MARCIANO: Shouldn't pose any travel problems, Kiran. So, you'll be fine for the ride home. But here's on the radar scope. A little bit of white showing there. Most of the white is across the Poconos and Upstate New York. This is not organized lake-effect yet, but it will get reorganized again.
So, some of the spots that saw the heavy snow the last couple of days with lake-effect snow will see it again. We have lake-effect snow warnings that are posted for parts of Michigan. You can already see these lines are becoming more organized.
So, this is the cold air that's starting to drive south. 24 for a high in Minneapolis. 34 in Chicago. It will eventually be 40 today in New Cork City. So, even if it does stick, Kiran, it won't last too long. A little bit cooler expected tomorrow.
CHETRY: Time to break out the gloves, break out the scarves. Winter is here. All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK. See you.
ROBERTS: The first lady of France striking a chord on late night television. But that's not the only place that she's turning up these days. We'll tell you where else. It's 45-1/2 minutes now after the hour.
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ROBERTS: 47 minutes after the hour. The first lady of France -- she's a model, singer and now stateside as she makes the rounds to promote a new record. And, of course, our Jeanne Moos has been following her every move.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It takes a flashy first lady to make David Letterman speak French.
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": (SPEAKING IN FRENCH).
CARLA BRUNI-SARKOZY, FIRST LADY, FRANCE: (SPEAKING IN FRENCH).
MOOS: We're used to seeing a prince kissing her hand, a queen receiving her curtsy. Here's the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy during a late night comedy show being promo'd (ph) on morning TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And France's first lady Carla Bruni has a special performance for us. We're going to get rid of that tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think so.
MOOS (on camera): Just imagine, any other first lady out there hawking a CD -- Laura Bush, Michelle Obama. But Carla Bruni is a former model and now a singer. On her Web performance after she appeared on "Letterman," she didn't seem to mind his jokes.
LETTERMAN: The guy with the guitar? Secret Service.
MOOS (voice-over): David was about as flirtatious as he can get with France's first lady, Italian-born.
LETTERMAN: If I was Italy, I'd try to get you back.
MOOS: David even implied the Pope was charmed by her.
LETTERMAN: I know he's the Pope but he's also a guy. So, he must...
MOOS: And on the "Today" show, the first lady was asked about her famous quote - "Love lasts a long time, but passion, maybe two or three weeks."
SARKOZY: I don't know. Did I really say that? Maybe. Maybe I tried to be funny.
MOOS: So did a pair of French-Canadian radio hosts. Remember when one of them pretended to be President Sarkozy? And actually got through to Governor Sarah Palin. Carla came up.
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), ALASKA: And your beautiful wife, oh, my goodness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, my wife Carla would love to meet you. You know, even though she was a bit jealous that I was supposed to speak to you today.
PALIN: Well, give her a big hug from me. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She even wrote a song for you.
PALIN: Oh, my goodness. I didn't know that.
MOOS: Carla, the songwriter, told Letterman it was love at first sight when she met President Sarkozy at a dinner.
BRUNI: You know, it's not so comfortable to sort of be dating when you're like the president of France.
LETTERMAN: Right. We had a president who dated and it didn't work out either.
MOOS: A celebrity blog ditched her for looking ghostly pale. But that paled in comparison to Letterman's warmth, not to mention Dave's French dressing.
LETTERMAN: (SPEAKING IN FRENCH)
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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CHETRY: Bush's last stand. It's midnight madness in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a president issuing rules at the last minute that he knows might be contrary to what his predecessor will want to do.
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CHETRY: A rush to write the rules before it's too late.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the damage that will be done to the environment as a result of these rules will be irreversible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Plus, flying for the holidays.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you want a concrete reason why flying might be easier this holiday season, we've got freight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: What they are doing to the runways to get you home fast. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Most popular videos right now on CNN.com. Think these things never work? Well, one woman fell so hard for an e-mail scam, she ended up losing 400 grand mortgaging the house, wiping out her husband's retirement, sending it all to con artist. It's a scam that many of you probably have heard of -- The long lost relative from Nigeria.
Also, they may be the icon of Australia now, but kangaroos may not have always come from there. New evidence suggest that they may be originated in China.
And under water down under. Australia hit by flash flooding. Ten inches of water coming down in just six hours; in some cases, washing cars right off the road and stranding drivers.
John?
ROBERTS: So, maybe those kangaroos do wish that they were back in China. Last month we told you about Sheriff Tom Dart of Cook County, Illinois. He made headlines by suspending foreclosure evictions in that county. Yesterday, he came to Capitol Hill to testify, supporting a bill that could help at risk homeowners renegotiate their mortgages.
And Sheriff Tom Dart joins me now to make a case for the bill and to tell us what's going on at Cook County these days.
Sheriff, we had you on, it was a little more than a month ago, I guess. You said that you're going to hold all foreclosures because you didn't think that people had enough time, there wasn't enough notification, a lot of innocent people being caught up, most of them tenants. What's been happening since then, because I know that the court ordered you to start evictions yet again?
SHERIFF TOM DART, SUSPENDED FORECLOSURE EVICTIONS IN OCTOBER: They ordered me to start, but true to form, I haven't exactly followed through on that. I've had requests for about 110 evictions on the last four weeks and, John, I've done three of them.
The other 107 had one, you know, one thing wrong with it or another, and at the end of the day, I didn't go ahead with them.
And John, not a lot has changed out there. It's chaotic at best and it's not getting any better. That's why I was little disappointed that Senator Durbin's bill is not going to be passed, you know, in the next few days. We need immediate action. I cannot continue to do this by myself out on the street.
ROBERTS: Right. Senator Durbin's bill, just to fill people in, it would allow people to renegotiate their mortgages in bankruptcy court. This is something that was talk about during the election campaign and even before that.
You know, you're at the tail end of this process. You're kind of like the last guy and the last ray of hope for a lot of these people. I mean, you were sort of hailed on Capitol Hill yesterday as a modern day Robin Hood. Does something need to happen further upstream though to help protect these people?
DART: Absolutely, John. The reality is I can't tell you how many people's houses I have been in, who look at me and asked -- Sheriff, can you tell me who I can pay, who I can talk to? These mortgages have been secure ties and broken up in so many ways. They don't even know who to talk to.
In some cases, they have the money sitting right there. They have checking accounts showing they had been up-to-date on stuff. It's really something where we need a federal solution, but we need it really quick. Because, it might sound trite to talk about how people treat this like a piece of paper, but, John, until you're in these people's living rooms and you're explaining to them how I'm ordered to put you and your children out in the street with all your possessions, it hits you. This is real. This isn't just a piece of paper. This is their lives.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, I could imagine what those people would feel if you walked in and you said that. I was reading a local Chicago column that over the course of this year, you have been asked to conduct 4,500 evictions. Is that right?
DART: John, our numbers are frightening. We are triple what we were two years ago. And what I always remind people is what we're doing now is a window of what our economy was like 18 months ago, because that's how long the case takes to go through the system. So, you can imagine, the last 18 months haven't been too good. My numbers are going to quadruple again, and nothing is being done.
The judiciary stepped forward and did some things that are going to be somewhat helpful, but we already have some of the mortgage companies going at it. They figured out loopholes and they've already figured ways around some of the stuff I've been doing. And real people are getting very hurt here.
ROBERTS: So, the mortgage companies are beating you over the head to try to get you to do something. They were initiating contempt proceedings against you. And the head of the Mortgage Bankers Association was up on Capitol Hill yesterday, talking about this Dick Durbin bill.
This is what he said about it, and why he thinks it would be a bad idea.
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VOICE OF DAVID KITTLE, CHAIRMAN, MORTGAGES BANKERS ASSOCIATION: This could even lead to a new-era of red lining. Lenders will be forced to demand larger down payments and raise interest rates to balance the risk from judges, who would change the mortgage contract and cause lenders or investors to suffer an economic loss.
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ROBERTS: That's David Kittle. He's the chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association. What do you say about that argument and that potential that this is sort of bill would, you know -- mortgage companies would lose money. It would result in higher down payments, higher interest rates, less people being able to afford homes.
DART: It just doesn't stack up, though. The reality is what they'd been advocating is a voluntary modification program who everybody agrees is not working. People are not doing it. So, what they are talking about does not mark, does not follow what facts are. And does not follow what's going on in the streets or in the courts either.
So, it was something where Senator Durbin's witnesses were able to dispel most everything he was talking about. And what we have is an organization that truly has its head in the sand and we are so far behind the curve on this thing, that we need to get moving right away because the pain is only going to be getting worse. And we're seeing it already.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, you see the job losses out there. The number of people who faced losing their home. You know, you think something has got to be done. Sheriff Tom Dart, it's good to connect with you again. Thanks for being with us.
DART: Great, John. Thank you so much.
ROBERTS: All right, take care. We'll see you again soon.
DART: You, too.
