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American Morning
Obama Calls for Action on Health Reform; Congressman Apologizes for Heckling Obama; Initiative Under Way to Boost Port Security; Melanie Oudin Beaten in U.S. Open Quarterfinals
Aired September 10, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and good Thursday morning to you. It is September the 10th. Thanks for joining us on the most news in the morning. I'm John Roberts.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello, in for Kiran Chetry this morning. Good morning to you. Here's what's on tap. The big stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
President Obama drawing new battle lines on health care reform. He says it's time for Congress to stop bickering and start delivering on a health care bill. We have reaction and analysis of the president's make or break speech and where he goes from here.
ROBERTS: He's sorry. Republican Congressman Joe Wilson apologizes for heckling the president in the midst of his health care speech last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are also those who claimed that reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This too is false. The reforms -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
REP. JOE WILSON (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You lie!
OBAMA: It's not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Whoops. The South Carolina congressman could end up paying a political price for his outburst. We'll tell you what his colleagues from South Carolina have got to say about that.
COSTELLO: Plus, could terrorists really buy nuclear bombs on the black market and sneak them into an American city? How realistic a threat is that? On the eve of September 11th, we're looking into the problem of loose nukes in our "Spies Among Us" series.
ROBERTS: But we begin this morning with President Obama's bold call to action on health care reform, one that laid out his vision and challenged what he called the scare tactics of his opponents. The president also touched on the hotly debated so-called "public option," a government-run insurance program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Some have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. Others have proposed a co-op or another nonprofit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring. But I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The best political team on television is here to break things down for us this morning. Elaine Quijano is live at the White House. Candy Crowley is looking at what's next for the president's top domestic issue.
But, first, let's turn to Elaine.
And, Elaine, the White House promised specifics in this speech. Did the president deliver?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, not exactly, according to some, John. This was a high-stakes speech, coming on the heels of that politically bruising month of August and the president very much wanted to hit the reset button on health care.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you.
QUIJANO (voice-over): Trying to retake control of the run away health care debate, President Obama asserted...
OBAMA: The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action.
QUIJANO: On the controversial public option, staunchly supported by liberals, but decried as a government health care takeover by conservatives, the president, again, tried to carefully thread the needle, saying he prefers a bill include an option for government-run care, but added...
OBAMA: It is only one part of my plan, and shouldn't be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles.
QUIJANO: Yet, without mentioning Republicans by name, the president blasted what he called scare tactics by opponents, calling the notion of a bureaucratic "death panel" a lie and he insisted illegal immigrants would not be covered, prompting an outburst from South Carolina GOP Congressman Joe Wilson.
WILSON: You lie.
QUIJANO: Wilson later called the White House to apologize.
As for specifics, the president did mention what he supports, though much of it he's mentioned before, including a ban on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, limits on out-of-pocket competences, and a new insurance exchange meant to allow individuals and small businesses to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.
Missing, though, were new details on how exactly to pay for the president's $900 billion plan, aside from what he's already said before, finding money by cutting waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid.
OBAMA: While there remain some significant details to be ironed out, I believe -- I believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan I just outlined.
QUIJANO: It was an emotional appeal as well. As the widow of the late Senator Edward Kennedy looked on, President Obama recounted Kennedy's thoughts on health care, in a letter delivered to Obama after Kennedy's death.
OBAMA: "What we face," he wrote, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now, the president will try to keep the momentum going today with remarks on health care later this morning. And then at some point today, the president is expected to sit down with a group of centrist Democrats here at the White House. Then he'll take his sales pitch to the road. He's going to be holding or attending a public rally in Minneapolis on Saturday, John.
ROBERTS: He's trying to get the ball rolling and there are people on the other side who are trying to roll it back on him. We'll see how this goes.
QUIJANO: Right.
ROBERTS: Elaine Quijano this morning -- Elaine, thanks so much.
QUIJANO: Sure.
COSTELLO: His outburst stunned the House chamber this morning. Everyone's talking about Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, heckling the president last night by shouting "You lie!" during his speech, in case you were living in a cave.
Here it is again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
WILSON: You lie!
OBAMA: It's not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The South Carolina congressman did apologize in a statement saying, "This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the president's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.
And Wilson's faux pas has been a windfall for the man he defeated in last year's South Carolina congressional delegation. Democrat Rob Miller says he's raised more than $80,000 and counting, much of it coming after Wilson's comments from people who want to unseat the Republican incumbent.
ROBERTS: And, of course, James Clyburn from South Carolina also looking at the rules now to see if maybe there may be some sort of punishment.
COSTELLO: But as Candy Crowley just pointed out, Congressman Wilson is very popular in his district.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COSTELLO: And maybe some of his constituents weren't so upset about what he said.
ROBERTS: Yes. We can talk about all of that coming up. By all accounts, it was a critical night for the president, but now that his make or break speech is behind him, what is his next move?
COSTELLO: So, did he clearly explain what he wants to the American people? That's one of the questions we want answered from our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, who joins us now with reaction.
Let's talk about Congressman Wilson for just a second. Because what you were saying was pretty interesting. He's very popular in his district.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He is. He's -- actually, the last time he ran last year was his sort of lowest percentage win. I think it was around 54 percent, 55 percent. Before that, he's been scoring in the 60 percent range. It's a conservative district.
So, if you're looking at the election, perhaps he will have a stiff challenge, but the history suggests that he's pretty popular there.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: And he and Congressman Clyburn have butted heads over the years.
CROWLEY: Yes, they have -- they've exchanged words before.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: And as you pointed out, the president also called his critics, in essence, liars.
CROWLEY: Unnamed. I mean, I think that's the difference. You can sort of get up and say, "My critics are all lying," but then if you look at the president and go, "You lie," that's just a bit over the top.
ROBERTS: Yes. And...
CROWLEY: A time and place for everything, and this was neither the time nor the place.
ROBERTS: And he came out quickly and said it was inappropriate.
CROWLEY: Right. He knew that.
ROBERTS: So, what about the president? Did he change any minds last night?
CROWLEY: The question may be, did he stiffen any spines? And I think we have some proof here at least in the Democratic Party -- and that's one of the constituencies that he really wanted to address last night.
We've got some polling numbers, that when you look at them show that before the speech, there was some question -- this is, do you favor to the president's health care plan: 53 percent, pre-speech, said they did. Now, look at this number, 67 percent said this post- speech now. The caveats, this is a -- these are only people who watched the speech and it is heavily Democratic.
But for the president, the good news is, he really needs to convince the Democrats. And, you know, going into this speech, it was all about -- he needs to lead and why isn't he out in the forefront and he needs to hit back against these critics and he let them seize the conversation. So, this was -- this, apparently, at least for those Democrats watching this speech, he did step up to the plate.
ROBERTS: More of them in favor...
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Yes. So, if he can coalesce the Democrats. Now...
ROBERTS: What about the Republicans? Because he came into office, he campaigned on, came into office saying he wanted to change the tone in Washington. All candidates say that, don't they?
CROWLEY: They do.
ROBERTS: And he wanted to forge a new spirit of bipartisanship and it's just not there.
CROWLEY: It isn't there. And the White House and the Democrats, many of them, are sort of past the point where they care.
And here's the calculation. The president looks back at Bill Clinton and trying to get his health care plan passed. What happened? He didn't. What happened in the next election? Newt Gingrich revolution came along.
So, look, it's pretty simple. If an all-Democratic dominated Capitol Hill and a Democratic White House can't get health care reform, voters probably won't like that next year. So, if he has to do it without a single Republican vote -- I think there were very clear signals, by the way, last night from the president, that's exactly what he intends to do.
When he said that phrase about, "I'll work with anybody, but let me tell you something, if your only thing to stop it, then I've got no time for you." That's just like, hey, if we need to change rules in the Senate and I need to get only 51 votes, I'm all in for that.
So, I think -- I think that was the very clear message last night that bipartisanship, that's great. You threw out some Republican names. But the overall message was: we'll do it without you.
ROBERTS: Candy, thanks for coming in this morning. Good to see you.
Coming up, by the way, in about five minutes' time, we're going to break down whether President Obama did get his message across and cut through the confusion with Democratic strategist James Carville, and Susan Molinari, former Republican congresswoman from New York.
COSTELLO: It's 11 minutes past the hour. Time to tell you about some other stories new this morning.
Firefighters in southern California are racing against the weather to clear away brush that's been fueling a 15-day wildfire near Los Angeles. Crews shored up fire lines last night, thanks to better weather conditions. More warm, dry weather is expected in southern California over the next couple of days. Two hundred fifty square miles burned so far and two firefighters have been killed.
ROBERTS: Bernie Madoff in his own words, telling colleagues how to dance around questions from an SEC investigation in a just- released audio recording from 2005. The convicted swindler is heard coaching a potential witness about -- well, not giving federal regulators who are investigating him everything that they were looking for.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BERNIE MADOFF, CONVICTED SWINDLER: You know, you don't have to be too brilliant with these guys because you don't have to be, you are not supposed to have that knowledge and, you know, you wind up saying something which is either wrong or, you know, it's just not something you have to do.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The convicted swindler's counsel also included this little gem of advice, "Just be casual."
COSTELLO: And the economic recession has apparently given rise to a bumper crop of marijuana. For the first eight months of this year, law enforcement officials say police have hacked their way through billions of dollars worth of pot grown in California and four other top marijuana-producing states. Some farmers who have fallen on hard times are supplementing their income by growing marijuana.
ROBERTS: James Carville and Susan Molinari just ahead on the Most News in the Morning.
It's 13 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Good morning, Washington -- where it is currently cloudy, with a temperature of 65 degrees. Later on today, showers -- and it's only going to be three degrees warmer, a high of 68. It looks like it's more partly cloudy there right now though.
President Obama is demanding action from Congress to fix the nation's health care system. But did his prime-time address work?
Here to break it all down for us this morning, CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist, James Carville, and former New York congresswoman, Susan Molinari. We want to point out that Susan is a senior principal with a law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani, a firm that lobbies legislative matters, including health care. But she does not personally have any health care clients.
Thanks for joining us, folk, we're out of time. We'll see you again next time.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: James -- you hate this idea, James, of this being called a make or break speech. But certainly, the president needed to change the game last night. Did he?
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: He helped himself. But if this works, I still think he helped himself, I think he had two good days. I think Monday, because of the lunatic Republicans, they made what should have been just an ordinary event and address to some school kids into a national event.
I think, last night, he did what he knew we could do. He delivered an excellent speech. Now comes the phase where he's got to put this together. And I think he helped himself, but we're going to wait and see here. If you're a Democrat, you're feeling a little bit better this morning.
ROBERTS: And what if you're a Republican, Susan? He threw a couple of bones out there to Republicans, this idea of some experimentation with malpractice reform, also this idea that John McCain had during the campaign last year on helping high-risk patients with pre-existing conditions get health insurance.
SUSAN MOLINARI (R), FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSWOMAN: Right.
ROBERTS: Did he move the ball at all with Republicans, do you think?
MOLINARI: You know, look, I think he did a couple of things. I do agree with James. I think he did help himself. I think he outlined -- I think the speech was helpful in that he outlined the moral imperative to changing health care, something that I think if he had done earlier in the summer, the Democrats wouldn't have found themselves sort of in the throes of the tirades of emotion that they did throughout this summer. So, I think he did that well.
But, I think, for Republicans -- and quite frankly, I think, and we'll find out as this day proceeds, for a lot of conservative Democrats and people throughout this country, he left two major unanswered questions. Number one, again, how do we pay for this $900 billion program through elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid? Everybody knows that's not going to be where we're going to get this. And the trigger to how we're going to pay for this, if it, you know, goes over the line, it's going to trigger and we're going to shut the program down. Nobody believes that's going to happen either.
And then, of course, the big kicker line of the night, which was, "There are some significant details to be ironed out." I mean, everybody's always said it. Everyone wants health care. Republicans were holding up bills, because they have five bills that they have proposed where there are details. And now, it's time to flush out those details that can get this bill passed.
ROBERTS: You know, another big point of argument as well is what Susan talked about, James, and this idea of medical malpractice reform, is also the public option. The president, last night, seemed to indicate that it's not a must-have for him. Let's listen to how he put that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: For decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage available for those without it.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: The public option -- the public option is only a means to that end -- and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The public option is only a means to that end. James, he said we should be open to other ideas as well. He's trying to put himself in the middle here between Democrats on the left who say that we need to have a public option and then conservative Democrats and Democrats in the Senate who say, "Well, no, we don't think that a public option is the best idea."
Can he bring those two sides together?
CARVILLE: Well -- so we have a politician who's kind of, you know, trying to play it down the middle, anything new about that? No. What the president is saying is that the objective here is to get these people insured and that the public option is the vehicle. If you have a soft trigger or any mechanism they're talking about, this people get insured with private insurance, and who cares. That'd be great too.
But I think the message is, is that if you have this idea that can be implemented, that that will help get more people insured. And that's what the president's objective is, and it does make some sense.
ROBERTS: But, do you think again, and, Susan, can he pull both sides together in this debate? He's got almost as many divisions in the Democratic Party...
MOLINARI: Yes, he does.
ROBERTS: ... as he does between Democrats and Republicans.
MOLINARI: Well, exactly. I mean, there's competing letters that are going out today and have been going out all week where there's a significant amount of Democrats who said, we're not going to vote for any bill that doesn't have a public option in it. And there are letters that are coming out, as late as yesterday afternoon, by conservative Democrats in the House, not even in the Senate, saying if there is a public option, we're not considering it.
Look, here's how I think the play's coming down. Senator Baucus announced yesterday that he's ready to file his bill and start marking it up, start moving it through committee in the next few weeks.
I think that has to indicate that he got the signal from President Obama that this is the plan that's going to start moving and that this is the plan that's going to happen. So, I think there is going to be a third side (ph). But a lot of signals were sent out that the public option is not something that's going to be considered by the Democratic Party.
ROBERTS: Yes, last night, for a little while, the speech looked a little bit like one of those town halls that we saw in August when Congressman Wilson from South Carolina had a little bit of a rejoinder to what the president said regarding whether or not health care would extended to illegal immigrants. Let's listen to that exchange here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The reforms -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
WILSON: You lie!
OBAMA: It's not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, in an instant, Congressman Wilson became a poster boy for bad behavior. James, what did you think of that whole thing?
CARVILLE: Well, he's from Charleston, and I've been to Charleston for a number of occasions, and people there are justifiably known for their graciousness. He's rude. But on top of that, he's stupid because -- he's very stupid because the bill specifically doesn't provide for that.
So, it's one thing to have, you know, sort of a town hall Republican sitting in Congress; it's another to think that a member of Congress is that ignorant to the facts of the bill, which he is.
ROBERTS: Susan, what do you have to say to that?
MOLINARI: Look, I think, you know, the stand-up, sit-down, boos -- I mean, that happens whether we agree or think it's appropriate at every speech no matter who is president...
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Yes. But what did you think of his behavior?
MOLINARI: He, obviously, you know, went over the line. And, you know, it's not appropriate for a member of Congress to say that the president is a liar, under any circumstances, particularly in a House chambers over a joint session of Congress. And he rightly called the president and I guess offered his apologies to the White House today.
ROBERTS: And what about James said, what -- did he not read the bill? What about this idea that...
(CROSSTALK)
MOLINARI: Look, there's a lot of disagreement. Congressman Joe Wilson is not the only person who believes that at the end of the day that there's going to -- that there could be potential for illegal immigrants to be covered under some aspects of this bill as this bill moves through its process. So, he's not the only one that believes that this will not be in the final version, (INAUDIBLE) he's not. But to call the president a liar clearly steps over the line.
ROBERTS: Final word, James, because there are some concern here that while the bill stipulates that illegal immigrants are not covered, it's there an issue...
CARVILLE: That's in the bill.
ROBERTS: But there's an issue of enforcement here. Can they enforce it?
MOLINARI: Right. Exactly.
CARVILLE: If it's in the bill, nobody -- I don't know if he believes that, but the man demonstrated that he was not only rude, but he was ignorant. And that's in the bill. And poly-fact, everybody in the world has determined that. So, I mean, the guy ought to take two weeks off and maybe he and Mark Sanford can go down and have a convention of South Carolina Republicans or something.
ROBERTS: All right. James Carville and Susan Molinari...
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: ... good to see you this morning. Thanks so much -- Carol
MOLINARI: Great to be here.
COSTELLO: I knew someone would go there eventually.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes. And it had to be James.
COSTELLO: Yes, it had to be James.
Do you know what goes into your credit score? Gerri Willis is watching your money this morning. She'll tell you what exactly they put in there to make it good or bad, and how it can hurt you.
It's 22 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
New legislation and stricter credit standards are making it hard to even qualify for a credit card and that makes your credit score more important than ever.
ROBERTS: Our personal finance editor Gerri Willis is watching your money. And she joins us this morning.
So, how do we make our credit scores work for us as opposed to against us? I see those commercials, with the guy playing guitar.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Yes. Well, don't go there yet. But let's start with what people believe that's not really true.
A lot of people have wrong ideas about their credit score out there. They think that there's only one credit score. Not true. There are many. In fact, each of the three major credit bureaus has a score, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. The most important one is your FICO score and you can get that online at MyFico.com.
People think canceling a credit card increases your score, not true. In fact, the opposite can happen. You can actually reduce your credit score because your credit history looks shorter rather than longer.
And, finally, people think, you know I want to wait until that next raise, because that's really going to help my credit score. Not true. Higher salary doesn't have anything to do with your credit score. It's not about your net worth. It's not about your income. It's really about how you're handling your credit.
COSTELLO: OK. So, let's say we're not handling our credit in the best of way and our score is something we wouldn't even want to show to our mothers.
How can you raise your credit score?
WILLIS: Yes. Well, that's where the key, right? First off, forget those retail store credit cards. I know they want to give you 10 percent or maybe some special deal. But at the end of the day, they're going to pull your score once they do that and that means your credit score could go down. So, don't go there.
Also, the big kahuna here, pay on time. It's all about paying on time. Your FICO score, a third is dependent how well you pay on time.
And spend only 10 percent of your credit limit. And by that I mean, you can spend whatever you want inside that month, but the amount you're going to revolve, it should be 10 percent of your limit. So, if you have a $3,000 limit, you should revolving $300. Although I'm no fan of revolving, we're talking about improving your credit score here.
Finally, check out your credit score. Check out your credit report once a year for free. Free Web site is AnnualCreditReport.com. There are lots of imitators. You probably seen them advertiser. The free one, with no strings attached, AnnualCreditReport.com.
ROBERTS: When I was growing and establishing a credit score, I found that bank loans -- paying them off on time, or even ahead of time was a great way to establish you score. And a couple of times, I actually took out loans on things that I didn't need to borrow money from just so that I could pay the money back quickly and establish a good credit score.
WILLIS: Really good things. One of the most important things that the credit-reporting agencies consider as they put together these scores, how are you paying your credit cards. It's a very easy thing for them to follow and tracks. So, it's an important part of your score.
ROBERTS: Yes. And these were not expensive things, by the way.
COSTELLO: How long does it follow you though? Let's say you have a bad credit score, what you did to cause it to be bad happened five or 10 years in the past.
WILLIS: Look, you can turn your credit score around in literally months if you do the right thing. And the main thing that you want to avoid is not paying a debt, a 30, 60, 90-day delinquency. Those are problems that will dog for you for a while. But once you turn that around and you start paying on time, you can turn that score around pretty quickly. It's not like bankruptcy that's going to be on your record for like 10 years.
ROBERTS: Gerri Willis with the good tips for us this morning -- Gerri, thanks so much.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: Melanie Oudin's "Cinderella story" came to an end at the U.S. Open last night. She's joining us in just a few moments to talk about all that, where she goes next. Terrific U.S. Open for her by any measure.
As well, the latest installment in our series "Spies Among Us." The black market for nuclear bombs -- could terrorists get a hold of one? We'll tell you.
It's 29 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We're back with the most news in the morning.
Tomorrow is September THE 11th, an important time to ask tough questions like this. Could terrorists get their hands on a weapon that could do even more damage, maybe even nuclear material, and smuggle it into the United States?
COSTELLO: Today in our special series, "spies among Us," our Paula Newton is live for a closer look. And Paula, we're talking about black market bombs. PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John and Carol, one of the most chilling accounts I've come across is an undercover FBI agent asking an Armenian arms dealer if he could get him highly enriched uranium so he could bomb the New York subway.
The guy said yes, he didn't even flinch, and here's why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: In the words of President Barack Obama, loose nuclear materials could exterminate any city on earth.
So take a good look at these shipping containers being scanned for illicit nuclear and radioactive material in Belgium. Almost three-quarters of them will end up on American soil. The threat is truly global.
NOEL COLPIN, DIRECTOR GENERAL, BELGIAN CUSTOMS AND EXCISE: We seized 50 containers here with all kinds of nuclear radioactive sources, and that in all kind of traffic coming from all kind of countries.
NEWTON: That was last year alone. None turned out to pose a terror threat. But Antwerp and some 20 other ports worldwide are part of the U.S.-led MegaPorts Initiative, a front line defense to screen ship, rail, and truck traffic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An image is transmitted back to the central alarm station.
NEWTON: Those images give detailed x-ray information backed up by manual inspections. The program is seven years old, the aim, to equip 100 seaports by 2015.
COLPIN: Before we didn't know it. Now we can do the screening and we are, indeed, surprised to find the number of seizures and the importers.
NEWTON: Since 2001, databases kept on behalf of the International Atomic Agency recording roughly a doubling of illicit trafficking in materials that could be used in dirty bombs, using radioactive material or, in a few cases, for nuclear devices.
One favored route is from the former Soviet Union into Georgia, on to Turkey, and then through Europe in ports like Antwerp. Incidents involving weapons grade nuclear material are very rare. Just one could lead to a catastrophe.
ANDREAS PERSBO, NUCLEAR ARMS RESEARCHER: It's a game changer. It will change everything for a very, very long time. Lives lost and infrastructure damaged mounting to billions. But you have the political short fallout. Who would know what happened?
NEWTON: Experts point out despite this program, we are still vulnerable. Improvised nuclear device encased in lead and uranium (inaudible). WILLIAM KILMARTIN, MEGAPORTS PROGRAM DIRECTORS We have a ways to go to get to our ultimate goal, and that is protecting maritime traffic anywhere it's going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: There's a ways to go on that, many ports still to be secured, a lot of cargo still to be checked.
We don't want to be too alarmist about this. The incidents, the vulnerability is still really quite low. At the same time, it only takes one. John, Carol, it could cost, researchers say, as little as $10 million to produce a nuclear weapon to detonate in the United States.
ROBERTS: That is troubling. Paula Newton for us this morning, Paula, thanks so much.
Tomorrow, our "Spies among Us" series takes a look at our security record since September 11th. How have we been able to prevent a major terrorist attack since 2001? Was it measures that the last administration took, or is al Qaeda on the run? That's tomorrow on "Spies among Us."
COSTELLO: It's 34 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now, there are new details about the man who briefly hijacked a plane in Mexico City.
A Mexican official say he's a 44-year-old Bolivian, a former drug addict, and an alcoholic who is now a minister. He told police he hijacked the plane because of yesterday's date, 9/9/09. Turn that around, and of course, it's 6/6/6.
He told reporters, "Christ is coming soon," and officials says he told them he wanted to warn Mexico City of an earthquake. Originally, reports said there were three hijackers instead of just one.
ROBERTS: Plus, a Republican lawmaker in California has quit his post after comments he made about his mistress went public. Former Assemblyman Mike Duvall was at a meeting in July and was whispering about his lover, unaware the whole thing was being picked up by a microphone.
And parents, we're going to play this, but you may not want your kids to hear it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE DUVALL, CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY: So I've been getting into spanking her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are?
DUVALL: Yes, I like it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does she? DUVALL: Yes, yes, she goes, I know you like it. I said, yes, because you're such a bad girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Duvall left a statement on his Web site apologizing to voters, his colleagues, and his family.
And the swine flu outbreak at Washington State University just getting worse. Officials in the school's Pullman, Washington campus say in just two-and-a-half weeks about 2,500 students have come down with possible cases of H1N1. But rather than test every case, the school says they're just going to follow CDC guidelines.
COSTELLO: So we know there's politics in play on both sides of the aisle when it comes to President Obama's health care pitch. But will the plan really work for health care professionals, the doctors, nurses, and surgeons who take care of all of us?
For some expert opinion, let's bring in Dr. Bernadine Healy. She's the health editor of "U.S. News & World Report" and the former president of the American Red Cross, and Dr. Lisa Sanders, the assistant clinical professor at Yale School of Medicine and author of "Every Patient tells a Story." Welcome to you both.
DR. LISA SANDERS, ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROFESSOR, YALE SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Dr. Sanders, let's start with you. What caught your ear as a practicing physician in President Obama's speech last night?
SANDERS: Well, first, it was great to hear that the discourse is going to get back on track and we can talk about the real problems that face us as we take care of our patients on a daily basis. So that was really great to hear.
I was really glad to hear that he's going to protect people who already have insurance. I have a patient who had the misfortune of having a heart attack 20 years ago. Now he can't get insurance. His COBRA ran out after he retired early, and he has five more years to Medicare, and he can't get insurance. That shouldn't happen.
And I think that the Obama's -- the reforms he's suggesting will make sure that that doesn't happen. And that was very exciting.
COSTELLO: Yes, the one thing I think many Americans are still wondering about is how do you pay to cover every American? You know, for every American to have health insurance, you're going to have to pay for it somehow.
One of the ideas that President Obama talked about was eliminating the fraud in Medicare. And Dr. Healy, I wanted to talk to you about that. He said that he wants to put together an independent panel of doctors and health care professionals and eliminate millions and millions of dollars of fraud and that could, of course, help pay for health insurance for everyone. What do you think about that?
DR. BERNADINE HEALY, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Well, I think it's absolutely right in that we have to make sure there isn't abuse, there isn't fraud, there isn't waste in any of our government programs.
But I think we have been working on fraud and abuse in these government health care programs for a long time, and I'm not so optimistic, as the president seemed to be, that we could raise that kind of money just by going after fraud.
One issue is, though, could we go after waste. And waste is a broader term, which could mean are doctors rendering too much care? Are they using drugs that they shouldn't be using? More monitoring of the performance of physicians. And I think that needs to be defined.
So I would home in on, what do you mean by "waste"? And does that include the performance of physicians and judgments as to whether or not a particular treatment should have been done in a given setting?
COSTELLO: And you know, Dr. Sanders, some analysts say that will put a big burden on our health care system and actually hurt it in the long run. When, you know, you're busy about ferreting out waste, maybe that will affect care.
SANDERS: Well, I think that Dr. Healy is exactly right. Our patients are getting too much care and not of the right variety. We order too many tests, we prescribe too many drugs, we send people for too many procedures that don't help them live longer and don't help them do better.
If all this money were paying off, we would be the longest-lived people on the planet, and we know we're not. Our health is not nearly as good as it is in other places.
So I think that there is a lot of unthinking medicine, and I think that if focusing on getting people to use the right care at the right time is the most important thing we can do for our doctors and our patients.
COSTELLO: Something else the president brought up last night was malpractice reform. And I'll just read what he said. He said "I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs."
Dr. Healy, what does that say? Do you think the president is serious about this, or is he just throwing a caveat to Republicans?
HEALY: Quite honestly, I think this was one of the weakest parts of his speech. Back in mid-June, he spoke to the AMA, and basically said I'm going to study this, I'm going to take a look at it and see what we can do. He never used the word "tort reform." Last night, he brought it up as if -- and said, basically, the same thing he said several months ago as if it were new, and said, now I'm going to talk to HHS to develop pilot programs.
There's a lot of information on defensive medicine, the cost to the system. I think that he has to be much more specific about this, and maybe he has to use that word "tort reform."
And this is a legal issue, it is not just a medical issue. And, again, we need much more depth on it. The way it was said last night, it was almost a throwaway, because this is a concern and it is a big cost driver for our medical system.
COSTELLO: Thanks to both of you. We could talk about this all day and all night and for months. I wish we had more time. Dr. Sanders, Dr. Healy, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
SANDERS: Thank you.
HEALY: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Thank you.
We know you have lots of questions about health care reform, and we're helping you sort fact from fiction and putting all the answers on the line. Just head to CNN.com/healthcare.
I meant to say, we're putting all the answers online. That's why you go to that Web site.
ROBERTS: Online, on the line, we're doing it all.
(LAUGHTER)
She was a Cinderella story at this year's U.S. open, but unfortunately for Melanie Oudin, it turned midnight last night. She is out of the tournament now.
But she has got a great future ahead of her. The way she was playing she is going to be a star in the tennis world for years to come. And she's joining us coming up in a couple of minutes to talk about her experience.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning, New York city, where it's cloudy, mostly cloudy, at 61 degrees. Later on today, afternoon showers, it's going to be a cool day, a high of only 69 degrees.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: Melanie Oudin, she was the Cinderella story at the U.S. Open. She's joining us coming up next.
It's 47 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We cheered right along with the crowds at this year's U.S. Open at 17-year-old phenom Melanie Oudin. Do you like to be called a phenom? Actually, you inspired all of us with your grit on the court to become the comeback kid who made it to the quarterfinals.
ROBERTS: Alas, the dream ended last night when Melanie lost in Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets, a rising star in her own right. But her world ranking is certainly going to climb from where it was, big things ahead for her.
And Melanie joins us this morning to tell us about what the experience was like. First of all I've got to say, we've been saying this since you walked into the studio, but on air, formally, congratulations. It was a tremendous run you had at the U.S. Open.
MELANIE OUDIN, TEEN TENNIS PHENOM: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So last year was your first U.S. open appearance, came in as a wild card. You were out in the first round. What was the experience like this year's compared to last?
OUDIN: It was so much better. I wanted to get revenge this year, because I was really disappointing losing last year first round.
ROBERTS: Yes, you'd been pro for all of four months. What the heck?
OUDIN: Yes. I did better. And I'm really proud of myself and how I did.
COSTELLO: And you were saying before how it was a combination of everything that maybe affected your game. Tell us about that, what the pressure has been like on you with all of the attention that you're getting.
OUDIN: It's been hard. It's definitely different than what I'm used to. I'm just used to going out and playing tennis. But these two weeks has been so much more than that. It's been lots of media and different things happening and people knowing who I am now, and just a lot of things.
But all in all, it was good for me and it's a good learning experience.
ROBERTS: In all of the big matches you had played before against Petrova, Sharapova, you lost the first set, but you came back to win. The same thing happened last night. But just put up this picture here of you after losing the first set to Wozniacki. It was something in your face that said, uh-oh. What was going through your mind?
OUDIN: I knew that I wasn't playing as well as I had in the past matches. So it was going to be hard to try to come back. And I did try, but Carolyn's too strong of a player, and she did not let me back in the match. So I couldn't come back. COSTELLO: And I want to ask you about this, because Caroline, the young woman who beat you, you were interviewed before her, and she actually turned to the crowd and said, you know, I hope you're glad that I won, because she knew how much the crowd loved you.
ROBERTS: I've got the exact quote here. She said, "I'm sorry I won against Melanie today. I know many of you guys wanted her to win, but hopefully I won many of your guys' heart and you'll be cheering at me at my next match." You don't often hear that from the winner.
OUDIN: No, you don't. I was very surprised to hear that. But Caroline's a really nice girl.
COSTELLO: So how does it make you feel that people have embraced you like this? What does it feel like? You had to be really disappointed and kind of angry that you lost the match, yet here's this, like, overwhelming love coming at you from the crowd.
COSTELLO: It's pretty exciting. It's very different for me having everyone know who I am now and stuff. But it's cool that I have a lot of new fans and people are going to be cheering for me.
ROBERTS: What have you learned through this U.S. open? And let me just, you know, for people who really understand tennis, you had more winning shots than Caroline did, but you had twice as many unforced errors. You had 42. So it's difficult to win when you're making that many errors.
OUDIN: It is.
ROBERTS: So what did you learn during this U.S. Open that you will take with you into the next tournament?
OUDIN: I'll definitely learn that I -- I've gained confidence this tournament, that I can do this again, hopefully, and that I can compete with the best in the world, you know, no matter how highly ranked they are.
I beat Sharapova, who's a huge champion, has been number one in the world before. So my confidence has definitely gone up.
ROBERTS: You got a lot of physical toughness. Do you have to work on the mental part of the game too?
OUDIN: You have to work on both, yes. Mentally, it's a very, very important part of the game.
COSTELLO: So you're going to go home, and I think I heard you vowed you would continue to live life as normal.
OUDIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: What is normal for you?
OUDIN: Normal is just going home and spending time with my family and going to the mall with my friends and the movies and just being a normal 17-year-old kid.
ROBERTS: As normal as you can be.
But what about tennis? What's next for you in tennis?
OUDIN: Next for me, I'm going to Asia when my next tournament is coming up. So that's going to be interesting.
ROBERTS: So we've got to ask this to clarify this. What was the hotel thing all about? We've got some stories that say the hotel wouldn't let you stay, and then other reports say, well, the hotel didn't know it was you. What happened there?
OUDIN: No, it was just the fact that we had -- our reservation had ended, and then we just moved across the street, and they didn't really have any more rooms. So it wasn't a big deal.
ROBERTS: Did your agent say, hey, wait a minute, we've got Melanie Oudin here. She needs a room.
OUDIN: Apparently they didn't think that was good enough. I don't know.
COSTELLO: When you became a big a name as Sharapova, that will not happen to you anymore.
ROBERTS: She is as big a name. She beat her! Come on!
Hey, listen, congratulations. You did terrific work out there.
OUDIN: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: I love your game, I love the way that you made all those shots as opposed to just sitting back there and beating it. So we're expecting and we're looking forward to big things from you.
OUDIN: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Great to have you here.
OUDIN: Thank you.
COSTELLO: It's 55 minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Hey, that little guy really gets around, doesn't he? He's known as the crasher squirrel, and he's all the rage online. He has tribute pages, he has Facebook fans, and now he's headed to "National Geographic."
He's actually a real squirrel who popped into camping couple Melissa and Jackson Brandt's photo unexpectedly, and people just went absolutely nuts.
Now there's a Web site where you can cut and paste the squirrel, you can cut and paste the squirrel into any photo you want. He's been at Woodstock, the Apollo moon landing, and apparently "American Morning" too.
And now, drum-roll, the couple submitted the real photo for a contest in "National Geographic," and the shot that started it all will be in the magazine's November issue. And then I'm sure he'll pop up someone else.
ROBERTS: I guess he was intrigued by the noise that the camera was making as it was clicking down for that self-portrait, and came up, oh, what's in there? Got some peanuts in there?
Continue the conversation on today's stories. Boy, it's been just very fiery on our blog this morning and on e-mail as well. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
And that's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us on this "American Morning."
COSTELLO: Here's "NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins.
