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American Morning
Obama's Prime-Tech Pitch; Rep. Frank Calling Justice Scalia a Homophobe; Obama Lays out Challenges to Economy; Secretary Clinton on Mexico; Fred Thompson Interview
Aired March 25, 2009 - 07:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Three minutes till the top of the hour. And a look at the top stories we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
President Obama heads to Capitol Hill today to defend his ambitious budget not just to republicans but to skeptical senate democrats. We're live at the White House with details.
Also, brand new and surprising international reaction to President Obama's massive economic plan. The Czech Prime Minister who now holds the rotating presidency of the European Union says that a combination of all that spending is, "a way to hell." We'll talk about it.
And Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is traveling to Mexico today. This is her third mission outside of the U.S.. Mexico, a hot spot, as we know and we've been reporting here. She's expected to assure President Felipe Calderon that the U.S. plans to crack down on weapons and money flowing south and fueling the drug cartels war with Mexico.
In a brand new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll that was released just minutes ago, quite a high approval rating for Clinton, 71 percent of Americans approve of the job she's doing as secretary of state.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin the hour with President Obama's second prime-time news conference. And last night, the president went before the cameras to say amid all the economic doom and gloom, there was reason for hope.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to attack this crisis on all fronts. The strategy to create jobs, to help responsible homeowners, to restart lending and to grow our economy over the long term.
And we're beginning to see signs of progress. We'll recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have toward each other, that's when we succeed. That's when we prosper. And that's what is needed right now. So, let's look toward the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination and, most importantly, a renewed confidence that a better day will come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Obama says that there's no quick fix. He urged Americans to be patient and give his far-reaching economic blueprint a chance to work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: This crisis didn't happen overnight and it didn't result from any one action or decision. It took many years and many failures to lead us here, and it will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out. There are no quick fixes. And there are no silver bullets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And today President Obama heads to Capitol Hill to sell his budget to skeptical democrats. A budget the president insists is crucial to the economic recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led us to a narrow prosperity and a massive debt, it's with a budget that leads to broad economic growth. By moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House for us this morning. And Suzanne, one of the big things that people are talking about this morning is the mood of last night's press conference. Very down to business, sometimes cautious. The president even using a teleprompter while reading his opening statement.
And, you know, I've seen virtually every presidential press conference since the summer of 1999, and I've never seen either President Clinton or President Bush use a teleprompter for those opening remarks.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, you're absolutely right. And the one thing that we did see this president do is he uses the teleprompter all the time. He is very cautious, very deliberate, down to the detail, to the word, in terms of getting his message out, what he says. And this was really different from the campaign.
In the campaign, obviously, he didn't use a teleprompter. The times, the rare moments that he did, it was a very big announcement, a big occasion. You knew that they were rolling out for a particular reason, like his race speech in Philadelphia. That was one of the first times that we actually saw him use the teleprompter. And we knew that something big was coming.
I think what you're seeing now is the teleprompter, everything he says is big, everything is taken and dissected. And so, you see him really kind of, I guess, dependent on that in some ways.
ROBERTS: Right. What about the mood, too, that this fact that, you know, he was trying to be a little more positive than he was in the last primetime press conference, but at the same time, he was very business-like about the whole thing, and certainly very cautious in a lot of his language.
MALVEAUX: You know, we've come a long way from the kind of "Yes, we can," the big rallies and the cheers and all of that. We heard him say no silver bullet, that there is no quick fixes when it comes to the economy. You talk about this takes a lot of time, perhaps months. A lot of patience. This is a president, a man, who obviously is feeling the weight of this responsibility. The weight of this challenge. And we heard it in his tone. We heard it in his demeanor. We saw it in his expressions last night. Very different from the campaign of Barack Obama. But obviously taking it very seriously.
ROBERTS: Suzanne Malveaux for us live at the White House this morning. Suzanne, thanks so much.
MALVEAUX: Hey, thanks.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We want to break down a couple of the president's points, and run a fact check on them starting with housing. Our Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning, and joins us now.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let's start with the housing. Because he said something, a couple of things there, that I thought were interesting. He said that American should know that 40 percent of mortgages are ready to be refinanced or could be refinanced. That was one thing he said about housing.
He also said the housing bailout will help responsible homeowners stay in their homes. He's made this point many times about helping responsible homeowners, but even folks within the fed and within his own administration have pointed out that, gosh, when you're trying to help 3 million to 4 million people, in the first part of this housing crisis, the people who are underwater, helping them refinance, some of those people are probably not responsible borrowers.
There could be people in there who got too big of a house than they could afford, people who keeping up with the Jones, people who took a lot of money out of their house and probably shouldn't. So, I think it is impossible to know whether every single person who is being helped by the homeowner bailout will help responsible homeowners. Some of those folks, quite clearly, have gotten into this mess of their own bad judgment.
CHETRY: What about some other things that you noticed?
ROMANS: Our assumptions are consistent with what blue chip forecasters are saying. These, of course, are his assumptions about the economy. His assumptions for the budget. We survived the bank bailout, the TARP controversy, the stimulus fight, now comes the budget fight.
And, in fact, many, many economists are saying that those assumptions are simply too rosy. That they are too high. That, in fact, it will be difficult to cut the budget in half if you don't get the growth that the president and his team are forecasting. Jeffrey Sachs earlier this morning, told me, you know, Christine, those assumptions are simply too rosy. The UCLA economic team put out a new economic study overnight. And, in fact, their jobless forecasts are much higher than the White House has in the next couple of years as well.
There are more economists who are saying and a blue chip consensus -- it's even called the blue chip consensus. It's an average of 50 economic forecasts, that also is not quite as optimistic as the White House.
CHETRY: Yes. He said that his -- that his -- their growth projections versus congressional budget office are only different by about 0.4 percent.
ROMANS: But that's a lot of money. That -- 0.4 percent in this economy, that is -- that is -- that's why, you know, it doesn't add up when you get to the end, if he's right. Now, the White House has said, look, if the stimulus plans work, and if our plans work, then we will get the growth. They're saying that a lot of people aren't factoring in the kind of growth that the White House is hoping to get from its plans.
CHETRY: All right. Christine for us this morning. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: And President Obama facing some tough questions from the White House Press Corps last night. It became clear that the president was looking to turn the page when it came to talking about the AIG bonus as our own Ed Henry who pressed the president about his handling of the issue, and it provoked a testy response. Here's the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Why did you wait -- why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage? It seemed like the action was coming out of New York and the attorney general's office. It took you days to come public with Secretary Geithner and say, look, we're outraged. Why did it take so long?
OBAMA: It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Last night, "LARRY KING LIVE" -- on the show last night, White House Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, defended President Obama's response to the public's outrage over the bonus money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Has the president misjudged the public's anger over AIG?
RAHM EMANUEL, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: No. In fact, I think he's -- appropriately he said, on Monday, of last week, exactly how he understood their frustration and anger with the sense that if the economy and the financial stability is fragile and it requires taxpayer support, it's also going to be fragile enough for the very employees and their own sense of contribution and sacrifice to help AIG get better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, this morning we're also hearing from you on the president's economic progress report. Here's what some of the iReporters are saying about his primetime performance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD PETER, IREPORTER: My question specifically to you, sir, is what will you do? What are your backup plans in the event that these policies that you've set in motion do not work and, in fact, cause runaway inflation?
DAVID SEAMAN, IREPORTER: I would give President Obama high marks for tonight's speech. You know, he addressed the major issues. He appealed to the American people directly, and cut out the middleman.
KAREN, IREPORTER: His responses to the questions are still way too long. Like, after the first two sentences, I kind of zone out. I'm, like, come on!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Ooh, snap. Of course, we always want to hear from you on whatever topic has you fired up. Call our show hotline, 877-MY-AM- FIX.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it is -- let's see, seven minutes after the hour right now. Fast forwarding to the top stories that will be making news later today. In just about 90 minutes, President Obama's choice for Iraq ambassador, Christopher Hill, will be going before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has a confirmation hearing. Hill was the Bush administration's chief negotiator in nuclear talks with North Korea. Some lawmakers have question, though, of his lack of Middle East experience.
Well, after eight days together in space, the shuttle and the space station crews are saying good-bye. The hatches between the linked spacecraft will be closed just before 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time this afternoon. Three hours later, the "Discovery" will undock and then fly around the space station before heading back to earth. The shuttle was expected to return on Saturday. Cyclist Lance Armstrong is scheduled to undergo surgery this hour in Austin, Texas, to repair a broken right collarbone. Armstrong suffered an injury during a crash that happened in a race on Monday. He was on his Twitter account tweeting about it. And said that it was not a clean break, as they had previously thought.
Unfortunate for him but, you know, if anyone can recover, he's so strong. He should be OK.
ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely. Collarbone heals fairly quickly, you get to stabilize it, the pain goes away, you can probably ride very quickly after that.
Congressman Barney Frank taking some heat for referring to Supreme Court Antonin Scalia as a, quote, "homophobe." The congressman will be with us live to talk about that and his take on the president's performance last night. It's eight minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Congressman Barney Frank is taking some major heat for making a serious accusation against a Supreme Court justice. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I do think this argument that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to pick and choose as to which marriages it will accept is a good one. At some point, that's going to have to go to the United States Supreme Court.
I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia's got too many votes on this current court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, here now to explain why he said that is Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank. Congressman Frank, thanks for being with us this morning. A pretty pointed accusation there. What's the basis for that charge?
FRANK: Two opinions written by Justice Scalia in which he makes it very clear that he thinks it's a terrible idea for people who are gay or lesbian to have equal rights. It's not based on his views on marriage. Obviously, there's a legitimate debate about marriage.
In the -- a few years ago, the state of Texas tried to send to prison two men who had private consenting sex in their own bedroom. And the majority of the court said, "That's unconstitutional. That's an invasion of privacy."
Justice Thomas said, "Well, I think it's a silly law. I would have voted against it, but I don't think the Constitution prohibits it." Justice Scalia wrote a long, angry dissent in which he made it very clear he thought it was a perfectly good law, and that, in fact, homosexuals, as he refers to us, are bad people, and the notion that there ought to be any kind of legal protections is a mistake.
In an earlier case in Colorado, in which he again vigorously denounced the majority of the court for finding that it was unconstitutional to discriminate against people, again, not in marriage but a basis of their political rights, he said, "Well, of course, we disapprove this. We often disapprove of things like murder." I mean, literally, when he was looking for comparisons to the public disapproval of homosexuality, the first thing he said was murder.
So, unlike many people who have different legitimate views on this, I urge people to read those two opinions in the Colorado case, the Romer case and the Lawrence case. And, again, there is just no question about his just absolute view that it is -- homosexuals are bad people...
ROBERTS: All right...
FRANK: ... that shouldn't be treated equally.
ROBERTS: Well, let's take the Lawrence v. Texas case then, if we could.
FRANK: Yes.
ROBERTS: In his dissenting opinion -- we made a graphic up of this -- he said, "Today's opinion is the product of a court that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobium that is traditionally attached to homosexual conduct."
But he was -- what he was doing in that dissent, according to him, was complaining about judges, not elected officials, deciding questions about morality.
FRANK: No.
ROBERTS: Went on to write, quote, "It is clear from this that the court has taken sides in the culture war."
FRANK: Yes.
ROBERTS: So, if he is talking here about -- he is upset that the court is deciding this as opposed to elected officials deciding it, how is that homophobic?
FRANK: Because he is -- you forgot to mention the issue here. It isn't whether or not homosexuality is a nice thing. It is whether two men in the privacy of their own bedroom, two men who live together, two adults, should be facing prison because they had intimate relations. Now, Justice Thomas said it's a silly law. Justice Scalia said, "Oh, no, because we" -- the phrase you quoted is in the context of justifying sending people to prison because they have consenting sex in private because he disapproves of homosexuality. The court wasn't taking sides in a culture war. The very way that he frames it is that.
In other words, he believes that when six of his colleagues said, "No, the Constitution protects privacy, and you do not allow people to go to jail for private, consenting sex," that that's how -- taking sides in the culture war.
So, the very fact that he frames it that way is his argument. He is so angry about those of us who may be gay or lesbian that he thinks it's taking sides in the culture war to say people shouldn't be imprisoned for private sexual acts.
ROBERTS: And let me, if I could, get to the point that you were making when you gave that interview, the Defense of Marriage Act. You say that it's going to come before the court at some point.
The Defense of Marriage Act passed overwhelmingly in the House and the Senate. It was signed by a Democratic president.
FRANK: Yes.
ROBERTS: The National Review online, talking about what you said regarding Justice Scalia, pointed that out and went on to add, quote, "Millions and millions of voters in state after state have acted to preserve traditional marriage. Does Congressman Frank regard all of these Americans as homophobes?
FRANK: No, as I just said, no. I've already answered your question.
No, my -- I just differentiated between Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas. Justice Thomas said it's a silly law to send people to prison because of private, consenting sex. Scalia basically, says, "Yes, that's where they belong." So that's exactly the case.
No, people have, as I said, legitimate rights to differ over the constitutionality of marriage. My point is that Scalia is so anti- people-who-are-homosexual that he will argue so vehemently there that I'd rather not have him have the influence (ph).
But I was talking about his attitude in cases which had to do with political rights in Colorado and sending people to prison. That's very different than the question about marriage.
ROBERTS: And we should point out, too, that we reached out to Justice Scalia for comment. They declined comment on this, but perhaps we'll hear from him at some point down the line.
FRANK: Well, in fairness -- no, in fairness to Justice Scalia, I, obviously have been very critical of him...
ROBERTS: Right.
FRANK: ... but Supreme Court justices are supposed to argue through their opinions. And that's why I'm not referring to any private comments he made but to his opinions.
And, again, the issue in my mind is his vehement denunciation -- let's put it this way: He says it's taking sides in the culture war if you don't send people to jail for having private, consenting sex. It's got nothing to do with marriage.
ROBERTS: Great. Think you got the point across. Congressman Frank, thanks for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
CHETRY: He's ready to go. He's already taking his earpiece out.
Trying to sell a massive budget and silence his critics, did President Obama accomplished that during last night's press conference. We're getting reaction from both sides of the aisle at 16 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eighteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." Selling a $3.6 trillion budget, trying to silence critics at the same time, it was a -- it was a tough thing to try to do last night, and that was what the president was trying to accomplish in his primetime news conference. He also laid out a long list of problems.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: If we don't tackle energy, if we don't improve our education system, if we don't drive down the costs of health care, if we're not making serious investments in science and technology and our infrastructure, then we won't grow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right, so, did he get his message out there. We bring in Democratic strategist James Carville, joining us this morning from New Orleans.
It's good to see you.
Also our Republican strategist Ed Rollins. Both CNN contributors.
Let me start with you, James. It was something that he did time and time again, the president. He basically tied in the need to pass the budget that he has with -- with future growth and with getting us out of the ditch, the economic ditch, that we're in. How successful do you think he was at marrying those two last night?
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I just thought he had a message last night, and what I heard was patience. And that, you know, we're working hard. We got some things going. It's going to take some time. We got to keep our eye on the ball. And even talking about the issues that he just talked about, he talked about it somewhere down the road. And I thought throughout it that that was what he tried to get across. I actually thought he was effective. I thought he did very well last night.
CHETRY: And let me -- I want you -- I want you guys to hear this. This is one thing that we noticed. This use of phrasing that he did four times last night. Let's listen to what he talked about. He talked about backing up his own opinion by the opinion of others. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: There is uniform acknowledgement that the procurement system right now doesn't work. That's not just my opinion. That's John McCain's opinion. That's not just my opinion. That's the opinion of almost every single person who has looked at our long-term fiscal situation. And that's not just my opinion. That is the opinion of a number of people who are also against abortion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So, Ed, I want to get your thoughts on that. Was it almost undermining his own credibility like, maybe you don't believe me, but believe these people?
ED ROLLINS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I think he was trying to add some weight to what he was saying. I mean, obviously, the debate on procurement, particularly Defense Department is what he's talking about and he talked in terms of they finding $44 billion in cuts already. You know, my challenge to that is put it on the front page of "The Washington Post," show us where you made the cuts. I thought he was flat. I don't disagree with James in the sense that I think he's trying to drive a very deliberate message.
But I don't think a national press conference is the place to drive your message. I think -- I think the press conference is there to answer questions on a variety of things, and I think this was very staged show and I don't think it worked as well as some of the other things he's done.
CHETRY: What do you think -- you've been -- so many of these, of course, James, with President Clinton as well, the teleprompter, the use of the teleprompter, was that something that was odd or was it just a sign of our times?
CARVILLE: You know, it's technology. I mean, people before, you know, a lot in there. Look, I think that the press conference is part of "60 Minutes" which is part of "Leno." I think that there's a real sense that they want to put the president out there talking about these.
I mean, Ed and I might even agree at some point that they're using him a lot. But this is sort of a maximum time. And I'm sure that they'll adjust from time to time, but they're communicating, trying to communicate, I think somewhat effectively communicating what they're trying to do to the American people, urging patience and telling people that these things are not going to start to work overnight, they're going to take some time.
And he's going to need that as he gets deep into his administration. So, I think this is part of a larger strategy here. I don't think you could look at this as just an individual event.
ROLLINS: The danger that most of the public don't realize is the budget process is a very long process. It's a year-long process and, you know, I went through this with Reagan. Obviously, James did it with Clinton. You rev the public up, you think you're going to get something through. I mean, what you really get is a blueprint, which is very important. But this is a year-long battle and he's going to have to continually build the support both among the country and also among Democrats. Republicans are not going to be relevant on this process, but Democrats are going to be relevant and they're starting to have some serious objections, particularly the deficit numbers.
CHETRY: Are you concerned at all, James, that he's going to go make a sell? That there are 16 moderate Senate Democrats who say, you know what, we do have some reservations and we may have to really chop this thing up?
CARVILLE: Look, it doesn't happen most of the time that the president doesn't get everything he asks for. It happens all of the time. It happened to President Reagan on his tax cuts and spending cuts. It happened to President Clinton on his budget. It happened to President Bush on his tax cuts. And so, I mean, the people in the White House, already the president knows this, everybody knows that. So, this is a starting point. They're going to push to get as much as they possibly can.
But, of course, the final product is not going to look like what he proposed at the beginning of this. And Ed is exactly right. This is a long thing. And you have the budget reconciliation and add this and it's got to go to that. It's a pretty complicated process. But he's got to keep pitching it and that's what he's doing and he's got to make his case. And the things they're doing, starting the work and we can't stop now.
CHETRY: Last word quickly. Is he going to get the Democrats on board eventually for this?
ROLLINS: All right. He'll get -- he'll get most of them and I think he'll have something that pretty much he can claim a victory. But it's a long, hard process. It can be changed dramatically on the desks of Congress.
CHETRY: All right. Ed Rollins as well as James Carville, great to see both of you this morning. Thanks.
ROLLINS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: The president telling critics of his giant budget plan, "Got any better ideas?" Coming up, former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson takes the challenge. What would he do differently? And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to Mexico today. A look at what she wants to do to stop the violence from spilling over the U.S. border. It's 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." President Obama taking questions in his primetime press conference from outside the mainstream media. Correspondent from Spanish language network Univision asked about the president's plan to deal with Mexico's drug cartel violence. Here's a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: President Calderon has been very courageous in taking on these drug cartels. We've got to also take some steps, even as he is doing more to deal with the drug cartels sending drugs into the United States. We need to do more to make sure that illegal guns and cash aren't flowing back to these cartels. That's part of what's financing their operations. That's part of what's arming them. That's what makes them so dangerous. And this is something that we take very seriously and we're going to continue to work on diligently in the months to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to Mexico City and she's taking Obama -- President Obama's plan to Mexico's leaders. And our foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is traveling with Secretary Clinton and joins us live from the Mexican capital.
Jill, good to see you this morning. So what is her plan of action? Obviously, this is a -- I mean, some have likened it really to a war?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's true. And, you know, if you look at what the media in the United States and certainly on Capitol Hill, there is a lot of focus on that drug violence coming from Mexico. But you're seeing a new message coming from the Obama administration and you're going to hear it from Hillary Clinton when she comes down to Mexico today.
She'll be here for two days, by the way. And that is shared responsibility -- that not only are the drug cartels working and creating havoc, but they're being fueled by things that are coming from the United States, namely, money laundering and weapons. Not to mention the fact that the drug use is happening in the United States.
So, you're going to hear this shared responsibility. And also, as you just heard from the president, they really feel that President Calderon is trying, but needs a lot of help - Kiran.
CHETRY: Jill Dougherty for us this morning. Thanks so much.
ROBERTS: It's 28, almost 29 minutes after the hour. And here are the top stories on our agenda this morning. We're breaking them down for you in the next 15 minutes. The EU's president is slamming President Obama's economic plans, calling them, quote, "way to hell." We are waiting for reaction from the White House this morning, and we'll bring it to you just as soon as we get it.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal taking on (OFF-MIKE) defending those who want President Obama to fail, saying it's an important point to make if you think the president is jeopardizing the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: Make no mistake. Anything other than an immediate, a compliant, why, no, sir, I don't want the president to fail, is treated as an act of treason, civil disobedience or political obstructionist. This is political correctness run amok.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Jindal made the remarks last night in Washington at a Republican congressional fundraiser.
And bracing for disaster. Rain and melting snow are raising the flood risk in North Dakota right now. Near Bismarck, demolition teams are considering dropping dynamite from helicopters to break up a massive ice jam that's blocking the river.
And thousands of volunteers are racing to fill 2 million sandbags in Fargo, where the Red River is already 14 feet above flood stage and rising and could double flood stage by the time this is all over.
Well, the president came in to last night's news conference with a specific point that his giant budget plan is vital to fixing the economy and to his Republican critics, he said, got any better ideas? Joining me now with reaction is former GOP presidential candidate, Fred Thompson. He's in Washington.
Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by.
FRED THOMPSON, FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Good to be with you here.
ROBERTS: Let me ask you, first of all, to react to -- in response to what Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said there, where he said it's OK to say that you want President Obama to fail. Do you want President Obama to fail?
THOMPSON: I want his policies that I believe take us in the wrong direction to fail. You know, if his --
ROBERTS: Well, that's the same as saying you want him to fail, isn't it?
THOMPSON: Well, you know, we're quibbling over words and we've been doing it for a few weeks. Hopelessly, I think now. You know, I think adult conversation would take us elsewhere. But, you know, you come to your own conclusions about what I say. But if he has policies that I think make us dependent on the Chinese for our welfare in the future, I want that to fail.
If he wants to have policies that says redistributing the wealth creates wealth. You know, I want that policy to fail. If he takes us down the road of tripling our national debt in 10 years and making us vulnerable to higher interest rates and higher inflation and things of that nature, I want all those policies not to succeed. You can put it any way that you want to.
Now, if he wants to do something like he implied last night - which I think is the most important thing that came out - there was an implication there that he wanted to do something about entitlements later. Somewhere down the road. Nobody asked him really what he meant by that. If he wants to do that, I will join with him. I'll do everything I can to make him succeed with regard to that.
ROBERTS: So -
THOMPSON: That's the whole ball game in terms of our fiscal future in this country.
ROBERTS: All right. Let me ask about that. Because the president threw the gauntlet last night. Basically casting the republican party as the party of no, saying they're not coming up with any better ideas. One of the things that he keyed in on was entitlements and health care, saying it's structural unsound, we need to fundamentally restructure the whole thing. So you said that you'd be happy to work with him. What would you do?
THOMPSON: Well, first of all, let me put that in a little bit of context. The president is asking us basically to take the most giant leap of faith in the history of our country. He's saying if we spend enough and borrow enough and do it long enough and enact his health care program and a couple of other programs, that it's going to produce prosperity.
Then we'll be able to reverse ourselves and quit all this wasteful spending and somehow go back to an era of prosperity. What's working against them is logic, common sense and history. Because when you break it down, it doesn't make any sense. If you look at what the Europeans are saying about it, if you look at what the Chinese are saying about it, and the concerns that they're expressing, if you look at what over a dozen democrats on Capitol Hill are saying about it, if you look at what the Congressional Budget Office is saying about it, they're all saying it's not going to work.
Now, health care specifically, he's saying things like technological advances, prevention programs, these are pennies. He knows that.
ROBERTS: Right.
THOMPSON: He knows that the real money is going to be spent more and more as the retirees come on - come into the system.
ROBERTS: Right.
THOMPSON: And that's where we've got to make some changes and reforms in order to save money.
ROBERTS: So, then, what would you do?
THOMPSON: Well, I think that you have to look at means testing. I think in terms of social security, you have to look at retirement age. I think you have to look -
ROBERTS: So essentially cutting benefits, then?
THOMPSON: And reindexing and so forth. We can't fulfill the obligations that we have. That's the difficult part. That's why he didn't want to talk about it. That's why republicans don't want to talk about it. We can't fulfill the obligations we have made, and we can't keep from bankrupting this country unless we do something about that aspect of health care.
Now, that's what he's hinting at. But the things he's specifically putting in his program goes in the other direction. He's spending money. He's not saving money with his health care plan.
ROBERTS: Senator Thompson, it's always great to catch up with you. Thanks for coming in. You gave us a shutout yesterday, so we'll give one back and reciprocate. Catch Fred Thompson every day 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. on his radio show on Westwood One. Thanks for being with us again.
THOMPSON: Thanks a lot.
ROBERTS: Come back again soon. Appreciate it.
THOMPSON: Thank you very much.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Just moments after President Obama finished talking, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was spinning on CNN's "Larry King Live." He said the importance of the President's economic message was underscored by what wasn't asked in the press conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Is there anything he wasn't asked tonight that you expected him? I know when you do briefings before, you come up, that didn't come up?
RAHM EMANUEL, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: You noted it a little earlier, as I was listening in, you know, it wasn't any questions about Iraq. We still have about 140,000, 150,000 American troops there. It wasn't a question about Afghanistan. He brought up Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Emanuel dismissed suggesting to the president's recent media blitz may have diluted his message. He says that he wants Americans, and that they want to hear from the president himself in his own words about what he's doing about the economy.
What do you think about the president's economic message? Give us a ring. Call our show hotline, it's 877-my-am-fix.
And superstar Lance Armstrong's cycling crash more serious than he originally thought and right now he is undergoing surgery. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" who has been chatting with Armstrong to get the latest on the cyclist's surgery and when he will make a full recovery. It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes now after the hour. And just in to CNN, our Christine Romans has been getting her polishing cloth and she's finding a little tiny bit of a silver lining in that cloud of gloom that's sort of hanging over the American economy. What you got this morning?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We have data, durable goods data, that is better than expected, actually showing an increase in purchase of durable goods in the recent months. Durable goods are things that's meant to last three years or more. They are more expensive items. They are things that people might put off for six months. People put off making these kinds of purchases for their home or for their company simply because of the economic environment. But durable goods orders up 3.4 percent. These are washers and dryers, furnitures, ships.
ROBERTS: There's rock bottom prices on all these stuff. People just trying to get it out the door. Would that have something to do with it?
ROMANS: It might have something to do with it. It might be that they put off these purchases for too long and now they finally had to but across the spectrum, little tiny things over the past week. Home sales are up. This is up a little bit. Whether it continues, I can't say but at least it's something.
ROBERTS: Ripples in the pond.
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Maybe they'll make them a wave. Thanks, Christine.
CHETRY: Also developing right now, Lance Armstrong undergoing surgery at this very minute on his fractured collarbone. And joining us on the phone, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta who is also on the board of the Livestrong Foundation. You had a chance to exchange I guess e-mails with Lance. How serious is what he's undergoing today surgery wise and injury wise?
VOICE OF DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well I think it's a lot more serious than they originally thought. When he was in Spain, they were saying that he was told that it was a clean break, the collarbone. And a much more easily - easy-to-heal sort of injury.
When he got to Austin, they got more x-rays and they found it's more what's known as a comminuted fracture. I think you're going to be looking at the images there. Comminuted fracture mean it wasn't as clean a break. There are bone fragments around the fracture site and in order for it to heal quickly or quicker, I should say, surgery is a good option.
So, that was sort of the thinking, I think, on the whole process. And this all transpired really since Monday when he had his accident.
CHETRY: And he says, at least, that he's still planning to be able to race in Italy in early May. Is that realistic, though? Some of the other assessments from NIH as well as others were saying that this is a month's long recovery?
GUPTA: Well, I mean, you know, I think this is going to be a point of debate probably in the cycling world and among orthopedic surgeons. You know, Lance is no ordinary guy as you know. I think once he has this operation, you know, he's - and I was, you know, pinning, e- mailing with Doug Ulman who is the president of Livestrong this morning about Lance, and I think that after he has had this operation he's going to feel better immediately. That's good obviously, because the pain will be gone, but it's bad because he'll probably want to get riding back as quickly as possible.
It's going to take some time to heal. He'll probably be in a stationary bike so he can maintain his conditioning and doesn't have to steer a road bike for some time. But he says, you know, he feels optimistic about getting back and maybe even racing in May and then certainly in July.
CHETRY: That would be - that would just be, May 9th, that wouldn't be that long. That's just a matter of weeks really when you think about it. That's a pretty big tour. All right, well we wish him the best. We hope he gets through this. And he certainly defied the odds before as we know when he had the advanced testicular cancer and was able to beat it as well.
Dr. Gupta, great to see you. Congrats by the way on baby number three. I know you're coming back from paternity leave soon.
GUPTA: Hopefully I can get some sleep for a couple of days at least and then I'll be back.
CHETRY: All right. Hang in there. Congrats.
GUPTA: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Right now. A very dangerous situation in the Dakotas, thousands of volunteers are sandbagging as fast as they can as rivers overflow their banks. We'll have the latest for you coming up. It's 42 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 44 minutes after the hour. Developing story that we're following this morning. The president of the EU, who is also the Czech prime minister, is saying that President Obama's economic policies are "a way to hell." We're going to go live to London in just a few minutes' time to get a little bit more on that.
But right now let's fast-forward to stories that we're going to be following today, stories that will be making news throughout the day here on CNN. And, first of all, this afternoon, President Obama makes the pitch for his $3.6 trillion budget to senate democrats. It's a tough sell, a lot of top democrats are worried that the new budget could add $7 trillion to $9 trillion of new debt. That would put it up $17 trillion, $18, $19 trillion.
At 10:30 Eastern, a Senate committee on aging turns its attention to the fight against Alzheimer's disease. California First Lady Maria Shriver expected to testify alongside former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
And we're following a growing disaster in North Dakota. Rain and melting snow pushing the Red River to 14 feet above flood stage. Officials have already ordered evacuations along the Missouri River in Bismarck. And get this, they may need to take the extreme step of dropping dynamite from helicopters to break up a massive ice jam that's backing up the river.
Our Rob Marciano tracking all of the extreme weather across the country today. And, boy, those folks in the northern plains just can't get a break, can they?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and on top of that, John, they've got almost blizzard conditions again on top of the flooding that they're seeing today. All right. Let's zoom in via Google earth and show you some of these river gauges. Anything you see in purple is major flooding. These rivers are still on the rise. The Red River heading through parts of Fargo and up towards Grand Forks. Again, forecasted to crest Friday early morning. Likely right around record stage of about 40 feet.
All right, let's roll over towards the Missouri River over towards Bismarck where, John, you mentioned there are a couple of communities that are being told to evacuate because of potential flooding. There are some ice jams around here, upriver towards this dam, which is one of the biggest in the world, by the way. This is the Garrison Dam. They are shutting this off in anticipation of flood controls there. Big storm.
We saw the heat melting the snow. We saw the rain antagonizing that. Now we've got temperatures that are well below freezing with snow. And sand bags not worked as well when they're frozen, and we anticipate temperatures to remain below freezing right through Saturday. If you're doing some travel today, Atlanta, Charlotte, you'll see some rain. Houston, some thunderstorms. And Anchorage still having some issues with visibility due to the ash that's being strewn from Mt. Redoubt.
Severe thunderstorms potentially across the south today, could see some heavy rain with flooding across parts of the southeast right through Friday and Saturday. John, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Wow, that's different. Are you still officially in a drought condition there?
MARCIANO: We are. This could very well be a drought buster. There are some forecasts that are saying maybe five, maybe six inches of rain. We'll see if that happens.
ROBERTS: All right. Rob, thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Well former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice sitting down with Jay Leno last night on "The tonight Show." The two talked policy and politics. But Leno got to ask rice about her favorite music.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZA RICE, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: I was trying to join the band, Jay. I'm sorry, I wanted to go over and play. They're great.
JAY LENO, HOST "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": You're an accomplished musician. But you're not really jazz, are you?
RICE: I love all kinds of music. I wish I could play like that. They are wonderful.
LENO: What's your favorite band of all times?
RICE: Led Zeppelin.
LENO: Really? Really?
Now, when you're, like, in the Security Council or something, everybody else is away, are you going, ohhhh?
RICE: You try to keep it under control. You try to keep it under control.
LENO: Do you rock out with the iPod and do the whole thing?
RICE: Well, mostly when I get on the elliptical and I exercise, then I can really be with Led Zeppelin.
LENO: Wow.
RICE: Yes.
LENO: I would have never thought that. All right.
RICE: Yes. It's great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Actually, that doesn't surprise me that much.
ROBERTS: It shocks the hell out of me. CHETRY: Really? I can totally see her rocking out to a little bit of Zeppelin as she's doing her cardio.
ROBERTS: Shubert, Mozart, Beethoven. Wow. Her birthday is the day after mine, and now we share something else in common, because my favorite band growing up was Led Zeppelin, too.
CHETRY: She's very well rounded.
ROBERTS: I want to see her do that --
CHETRY: Me, too. >
Well, President Obama's plan for economic recovery are a way to hell? Well, those are some words not coming from any republican in Congress. So, who said it? It's 49 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. We are following a developing story for you this morning. The head of the European Union, the Czech Republic's prime minister calling President Obama's plans for economic recovery "a way to hell."
Our Becky Anderson is tracking story for us live from London this morning. She's going to give us a little bit more information and perspective on where he's coming from this morning and -
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
CHETRY: Some strong language.
ANDERSON: Interesting stuff, isn't it? And with friends like these, who needs enemies. Less than 24 hours after a charm offensive by the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Europe and then, of course, on his way to New York to talk about the stimulus plan and how one might sell it, the Czech prime minister, who is, as you say, the revolving EU president at the moment, has said these extensive talks by Obama about a stimulus campaign, a U.S. stimulus campaign, are effectively the way to hell, as you've suggested.
He says the combination and their permanency - and that's what they're worried about, the permanency of the spend here are not good news. And it reminds us all, this is an interesting point, he reminds us all that we need to read the history books and revisit the lessons taught by history. So, not all the Europeans by any stretch of the imagination supporting what Obama has been trying to sell to the Americans and indeed to the Europeans and around the world with the op-eds just this week with the big stimulus plan, interesting stuff.
This coming from a man, let me tell you, the Czech prime minister, who only a day or so ago offered the resignation of his own government, because of a vote of no confidence in the Czech parliament. In the way in which he has dealt with the economic recession and the problems thereof at the moment. So, you're going to see a lot of this, Kiran, I think, at present, you're going to see a lot of problems, and talk and rhetoric ahead of this G-20 meeting next week. It's going to be fascinating. Back to you.
CHETRY: Yes, all politics is local, I guess, at the end of the day, right? But anyway his message, his words certainly resonating here in the U.S. today. So Becky Anderson, thanks.
ROBERTS: Ever wonder what goes on television during commercial breaks? Well, could it be this? Our Jeanne Moos shows us how dancing anchors move and groove down to the very last second. It's 54 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. News channels, newscasts, they're all about serious information, right? So, is there any chance to get a break from all the bad news? Well, have a look this morning at what goes on in Chicago while the commercials are running.
Our Jeanne Moos talks to the normally serious news folks who are both silly and apparently in sync when their viewers can't see.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think listening to the news is depressing, imagine delivering it.
JORDAN: The burning building -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three patrons were stabbed.
JORDAN: An undercover drug operation -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The toxic dirt ordinance.
MOOS: Give us a break, a commercial break. There's a name for this.
JORDAN: What anchors do during commercial breaks.
MOOS: Well, maybe not all anchors.
JORDAN: Bing.
BANGE: Boop.
MOOS: At WGN in Chicago, the weekend anchors do this in the first commercial break of every show. It started a decade or so ago.
JACKIE BANGE, WGN NEWS ANCHOR: We were so tickled to hear our names, we went ahh. Ahh.
JORDAN: And we started pointing.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching WGN News at 9:00.
MOOS: This used to be something only the crew got to see. But then it landed on youtube.
JORDAN: Oh!
MOOS: They have between two and two and a half minutes until the commercial break ends.
JORDAN: Getting close. Boom, boom.
Uh-huh.
MOOS: Moves range from -
JORDAN: Remember the John Travolta move?
BANGE: Yes.
MOOS: To the Dick Cheney. Hold it. That's the famous "y" move based on an actual incident when Robert got caught on camera when he thought he was off camera.
JORDAN: I see the flies zooming around and I started reaching for it. Sure, there have been dancing weathermen on youtube. Even dancing Iraqi anchormen and one of WGN's own reporters couldn't keep still -
JORDAN: I got to do my thing, I'll be right back. I got to go wrap this up.
MOOS: But this takes choreography.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 30!
JORDAN: 30.
JORDAN: She would try to go with me, poke my eyes out.
MOOS: Borrowed from the Three Stooges. But don't call these two stooges.
ROBERT JORDAN, WGN NEWS ANCHOR: I try to add moves. She won't let me add new moves. The ones that I like.
BANGE: Ask him what his move was, please?
JORDAN: I want to do the chest bump.
MOOS: So the next commercial when you take a bathroom break, remember these two, breaking into their routines. Working it right down to the last second.
JORDAN: Ahh!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten seconds, coming up to a voiceover!
JORDAN: We made it.
MOOS: Back to the world of mayhem and destruction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three, two, one.
JORDAN: Several hundred people are -
MOOS: Two anchors who aren't quite anchored to their desk.
JORDAN: Room.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One minute!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Very talented.
ROBERTS: There's something else they might not quite be anchored to either.
CHETRY: Well, I have to laugh because WGN is the super station and I used to watch it and I thought he was so serious. I always thought that now knowing what he does in the commercial breaks is you know high-tech choreography. Wow.
ROBERTS: Compared to what we do here. I mean, if you caught us in the break, we'd typically be - ahh! Anyway.
CHETRY: Exactly. Plus a little more sugar in the coffee. That's my third Red Bull.
ROBERTS: There you go.
CHETRY: That's it for us. Well, thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
ROBERTS: Right now, here's CNN NEWSROOM with Heidi Collins.
