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American Morning
Plane Crash Survivors; Mauled, Scratched, Bitten in Florida; National Anthem Failure; Your New Neighbor? The President
Aired October 12, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us in the Most News in the Morning on this Columbus Day. It's Monday, the 12th of October. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us this morning. Here are the big stories we'll be talking about in the next 15 minutes.
First, the White House is insisting it could be several more weeks before President Obama decides whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan. He meets again with his top advisers this week.
Meanwhile, Republicans are turning up the heat to send in reinforcements. Barbara Starr reports the situation for our soldiers on the battlefield is getting difficult.
ROBERTS: Afghanistan in flux not only because of the eight year war against the Taliban but also a presidential election that is still unresolved. Now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning whomever wins must do better.
We're traveling with Secretary Clinton, who is right now in Northern Ireland.
CHETRY: Soon new attacks on the health care reform bill, known as the "Baucus plan." Top insurance companies now say it won't save you money but could cost you and your family thousands of dollars more each year. Lawmakers are firing back. We'll break down the debate.
And a blunt warning this weekend from Senator John McCain. In an interview with John King on "State of the Union," Senator McCain said it would be "an error of historic proportions" if President Obama ignores the advice from his top commander in Afghanistan and fails to send more troops.
Reports from the battlefield also suggesting the Taliban is growing more powerful and more organized by the day. But the White House says it could be several weeks before the president settles on a war strategy. He has more meetings with top adviser this week.
Meanwhile, our troops are taking heavy fire. Militant forces in Afghanistan growing in numbers and their attacks in NATO soldiers growing more fierce. Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning. So Barbara, as we've been talking about, the pressure is mounting on the battlefields of Afghanistan as well as Washington this morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kiran. Here in Washington it is another week of meetings. No word on when a decision will come.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): Survivors of a brutal fire fight here at combat outpost Keating telling their story of an ambush at a remote mountain valley base.
CASON SHRODE FIRES, SUPPORT OFFICER, U.S. ARMY: I made a call and just said we're taking heavy contact, we need assets. From that point, just tried to fight the fight.
STARR: A helicopter crew member recalls seeing hundreds of militants attacking.
C.W.O. CHAD BARDWELL, APACHE GUNNER, U.S. ARMY: It was just kind of a shock to see the flames and smoke and to see that amount of personnel that were running outside of their wire. It was really -- it was just shock.
STARR: The White House scheduling another meeting this week, still deciding on a way ahead.
Counterinsurgency expert David Kilculen advises the Pentagon on both Iraq and Afghanistan.
DAVID KILCULLEN, COUNTERINSURGENCY EXPERT: I think that there are really two options, we need to do this thing properly or we need to go home and prepare for the inevitable humanitarian disaster that's going to happen.
STARR: Disagreement between the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Arms Services Committee. Senator John McCain told John King on CNN's "State of the Union." it would be a mistake of "historic proportions" to reduce the U.S. effort.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think the great danger now is not an American pullout. I think the great danger now is a half measure, sort of a try to please all ends of political spectrum.
STARR: Key Democrats say more has to be done to make Afghans take responsibility.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D-MI) CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: There are ways of showing resolve without more and more combat troops coming from the United States.
STARR: But for the men from Camp Keating, the only fight is for their buddy's lives.
SGT. JAYSON SOUTER, U.S. ARMY: I think that the best moment that told me what great of a unit I was in, what great of guys I was working with, was when everyone basically came together and in the midst of it all they were donating blood for the wounded we had. They all pulled together to make sure we can pull our battle buddies out of this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: Donating blood while under fire to save each other, Kiran. The meetings in Washington go on. And as you say, sources are saying it could be several weeks before decisions are made. But the combat reality goes on on the ground in Afghanistan.
CHETRY: Sure does. Barbara Starr for us this morning. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the middle of a five-day tour of Europe and Russia right now. She is in Northern Ireland. But at the same time, Afghanistan is still high on the agenda.
Our Jill Dougherty is live in Belfast in Northern Ireland this morning. She joins us now on the telephone. And Jill, the secretary making it clear that Afghanistan still has a lot of work to do on its own to try to stabilize the country.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): John, it's absolutely true. At almost every stop that the secretary has on this trip, she is talking about Afghanistan. When she was in London, she met with the U.K. Foreign Minister Miliband and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
And what she's doing is she's telling them, letting them in a little bit on some of that discussion that is taking place within the Obama administration about the strategy going forward on Afghanistan.
And one of the key problems really is still the election fraud that took place. They are left with a leader, and it looks as if Hamid Karzai will be that leader, that has been undermined by the allegations and indeed real election fraud. So the problem is, how does the United States deal with him and yet go forward?
Also, there's a real problem, and that's the area that Hillary Clinton deals with. Those are the aid workers, the development workers who go into the field and try to help create businesses, help civilian institutions in Afghanistan be stood up. They can't do that if they are being attacked by the Taliban.
So one of the dilemmas for Hillary Clinton is she really troops to be able to protect them. She is not giving a lot of details at all about what she is saying in those meetings or how many troops, et cetera, but the overall strategy is clear -- they need soldiers to protect U.S. aid workers in the field.
ROBERTS: Jill, there in Northern Ireland the secretary of state is pressing leaders to go ahead with, I guess, the final push here for the peace process. It's at the critical juncture but it has hit a bit of a snag. DOUGHERTY: It has. Just a few minutes ago, John, we just got out of this address to the assembly, the parliament in other words, the legislative body for Northern Ireland, Hillary Clinton standing in the midst of all of these legislators from various political parties.
And I have to tell you it was really an emotional speech, a very strong speech, urging all of them, the Unionists, Catholics, Protestants, to come together and continue to work together towards that peace process.
The snag they hit is what's called devolution, policing functions, et cetera, moving from the U.K. control over to Northern Ireland's control and how that's done. And there has been an uptick in violence. So it's at a very important, critical moment.
The other part of it John is economic development. And in just a few minutes, she's meeting with a group quite large of U.S. business people, Northern Ireland business leaders, and they're talking specifically by investments, because if the economy goes south, and it has been hit very strongly by the economic crisis, it creates real problems in the peace process for people who have been left out.
So it's an important visit, and the secretary from here goes to Moscow.
ROBERTS: All right, and we're looking forward to your reporting on that and the rest of the trip. Jill Dougherty for us in Belfast in Northern Ireland this morning. Jill, thanks so much.
CHETRY: It's eight minutes past the hour now.
Also new this morning, America's insurance companies taking aim at the Senate finance committee's health care bill, known as the "Baucus plan." An industry group says that if it becomes law, families with private insurance will pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars more every year.
The spokesman for Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the finance committee, calls it "a health insurance company hatchet job plain and simple."
ROBERTS: More than eight years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States still has no way to verify whether foreign visitors have left the country when they are supposed to.
According to "The New York Times," immigration official say nearly 3 million people visited America with temporary have visas in 2008 and they suspect several hundred thousand stayed after those visas expired.
Members of Congress are now urging the Department of Homeland Security to complete an electronic monitoring system that would track visitors when they check in and out of the country.
CHETRY: A new Michael Jackson single "This is it" released at midnight. It features Jackson's brothers singing back up. The strong will play over the credits of the upcoming Jackson film and it will also be available on a two disk album that's set to be released in about two weeks. Here's a sample of the song.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There you go. It's interesting -- so this is coming out in two weeks. Meanwhile, all of his prior albums after his death have been selling like hot cakes, they've been topping...
ROBERTS: There's a real bump. They've trailed off now, but we'll see if it bumps back up again with the release of this single.
CHETRY: We'll have to see.
ROBERTS: So again this week Afghanistan is going to be topic number one in Washington, what to do about Afghanistan.
Increase troops by 40,000 that General McChrystal wants? He actually had a plan that would see almost 80,000 troops going into Afghanistan. Do you take a middle ground of 10,000? What's the best way forward? We'll ask our panel coming up.
It's 7:10 on the east coast right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 12 minutes past the hour right now.
The president's top general has said that he thinks 40,000 more troops are needed on the ground to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. President Obama though is still weighing his options and scheduling more meetings with top advisers before making a decision on this issue.
Joining us now with more on the huge challenge facing the commander in chief, General George Joulwan. He's a former NATO supreme allied commander. General, thanks for being with us this morning.
Also, Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. Michael, great to see you as well.
So General Joulwan, let me start with you. Senator John McCain saying it would be "an error of historic proportions" if the president doesn't agree to send more troops to Afghanistan. We know a lot of generals have taken the position as well that President Obama should accept General McChrystal's troop request for Afghanistan.
But then again, he's also getting a lot of pressure from members of the own party to not send additional troops. If you were advising him, what would you say he does at this point? GEN. GEORGE JOULWAN (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: First of all, I think it's important to read the assessment, because it's the assessment that says first determine the strategy. If you're going to run a counterinsurgency strategy, which is what McChrystal is recommending, then you're going to need more troops.
How many more troops need to be balanced with other worldwide commitments. And to be very honest with you, as a forward deployed commander for many years, you never got everything you wanted.
So I think we're going through that process now. I think there will be a strong commitment for Afghanistan. But how many troops will depend on the strategy that's agreed upon by the National Command Authority.
CHETRY: Michael, how usual is it to have this debate with wildly fluctuating opinions from very smart and very plugged-in people? If you look at the op-ed pages today, you have "The New York Times" saying that a lot of goals have been left unmet. You have Fareed Zakaria saying that a surge is not needed in Afghanistan.
It seems there are very valid arguments on both sides whether or not to up the number of U.S. forces or to leave it alone.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, SENIOR FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Well, of course there are, and there are some very reasonable grounds for disagreement.
However, there are a couple of ideas out there that are really getting too much do.
Some people are saying we need to up the training of the Afghans, for example. That's exactly what General McChrystal wants to do with all these additional forces. That's a reason to increase forces, not a reason to keep them where they are or reduce them. So I think that argument is getting too much play.
Also, some people are saying we can revert to a more basic counterterrorism strategy and not try to build up these Afghan institutions. But we already tried that under Secretary Rumsfeld for six years and it didn't work and left us in the mess we're in.
So, there are some legitimate points of view out there, and there are a couple of ideas that are really getting more play than they deserve.
CHETRY: And General Joulwan, to that point, over the weekend, we talked about a major attack in Pakistan, and this morning, two hours ago, yet another attack taking place in Pakistan. It's been a deadly week. And a lot of people are saying we're focusing perhaps not on the right thing right now, that the al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds across the border in Pakistan are the biggest challenge.
What's your take?
JOULWAN: Well, I agree with that. And I think that's the source of the leadership and the source of the direction for the fights that are taking place. But the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government are making progress. I think we need to understand that. More needs to be done.
And we need to stay involved. We need to target the leadership in Pakistan as well. But the important thing here, it isn't either counterinsurgency or counterterrorism. I think, to me, predominantly counterinsurgency, but you need to have surgical strikes against the leadership of al Qaeda and the Taliban wherever you find them.
CHETRY: And, you know, as we talk back and forth about the strategy for Afghanistan, Michael, how does Pakistan come into play diplomatically speaking? And how -- you know, we don't have control over the situation in Pakistan as much as we'd like obviously, but as we've seen this security situation there deteriorate, what are the implications for U.S. diplomacy?
O'HANLON: Well, you know, in some ways, the situation in Pakistan has gotten a little better this year. It still obviously very troubled than it was until the last few days that were very good at all. And yet, they did have big operations in places like the Swat Valley that have made some progress. And so, on balance, we see this in the Pakistan index at Brookings, we're seeing some movement in the right direction.
But you asked about the link also, I think, to Afghanistan and what we can do with diplomacy with the Pakistanis. If we can get them more confident in our continued commitment both to them and Afghanistan, I believe there's a chance that we can ask them to put some of these leaders in their city of Quetta in a more sort of house arrest mode and get them to do less of the directing of the Afghan insurgency.
They actually have a leadership of the Afghan insurgency based in a city in Pakistan...
CHETRY: Right.
O'HANLON: ... allowed to operate by the Pakistani government to some extent. I think we can try to envision some clamping down on that in the coming year if we can get some greater trust with the Pakistanis.
CHETRY: Some great insight this morning from Michael O'Hanlon, as well as General George Joulwan. Great to talk to both of you. Thank you.
JOULWAN: Thank you.
O'HANLON: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So, if you open up your 401(k) statement in the next few weeks, you might get a little bit of a smile on your face. Wouldn't that be nice? Stocks are at new highs, but before we get too excited, third quarter earning season is upon us and so stocks are facing a big test. Our Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business." She's coming right up.
It's 18 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
This is pretty interesting. If you're feeling a little burned out and you live in Malaysia, hey, this is great. Malaysia is now saying -- the government is saying they are planning to offer free second honeymoons valued at close to $500 to save couples their who are on the brink of divorce. They get two free nights on the beach to patch things up. And the package also comes with some counseling.
How about that?
ROBERTS: That's a novel idea.
CHETRY: Stay together on us, the government.
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, it's probably expensive, you know, to get divorced in terms of, you know, what the cost the country. So, better to keep them together, right?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I guess so.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
And the stock market is at new highs, settle again about 10,000. But will it last?
ROMANS: Yes. It has been an epic rally. It really has been.
A lot of us have been nervous all along the way. We have every reason to be, right? I mean, we look at what's happening in the economy, we know what we feel like.
And then you see the stock market keeps going up, the FTSE, which is the U.K. stocks, this morning, hitting a new for they year as well. And, you know, the S&P 500 is up 58 percent from the March low.
And a lot of people are expecting that to keep moving this way unless the earning season has some big disappointments in it. And earnings is actually what drives things, right, when companies start to stabilize and they can show that their revenue was improving, and that means investors will keep buying these stocks.
We're going to hear from a bunch of the banks this week. We're going to probably find out that the banks have been doing better -- surprise, surprise. But we're also going to be able to get a peek into what's happening with the bank's customers. We're going to be able to see what's happening with their, you know, credit card default and the like.
So, look, it's been a really momentous run-up, a wall of money, as we've been saying, moving into the markets and moving into commodities, out of the dollar. And we're expecting that to continue unless there's some big surprise out of these earnings. Earnings, as you guys say, is the big test for the stock market rally.
CHETRY: Right. Meanwhile, you have the "Romans Numeral" for us right now?
ROMANS: I do. My "Romans Numeral" is $600 billion.
CHETRY: That's how much money we poured into the economy since this happened.
ROMANS: This shocked me. Yes, we've put in $600 billion and then some. This is just the paper gain last week in the Wilshire 5000, the broadest stock market gauge. Just last week, the paper gain in stock was $600 billion. So, to put that in perspective, however, the stock market is down pretty substantially since the October highs.
ROBERTS: We remember when the stock market was tumbling last fall, we would have a number every day that said this is how much value was lost. So...
ROMANS: Yes. We're still negative trillions of dollars.
CHETRY: That's so much that can be earned...
ROMANS: In one week.
CHETRY: ... or bought back in one week. Then maybe we're all -- are we just getting upset over nothing? We talk about the $780 billion stimulus, right? Hey, give it two more weeks.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: We are slowly digging our way out of a very, very big hole, but we want to keep climbing out of it. We don't want to keep digging any further. So, we're going see what the earnings say about that.
ROBERTS: All right. You know, if you hear about these near- death experiences, right, I saw a light, don't go to the light. Whatever -- there's apparently some truth and some science behind all of this.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Sanjay Gupta, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has just written a new book called "Cheating Death." And he's got a whole series of reports this week here on AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to have the first one coming right up after the break.
Can you really come back from the dead? Some people have.
It's 24 1/2 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Doctors who treated him call his case a medical miracle. A 22- year-old man who is dead for 15 minutes came back to life. Cases like his are becoming more and more common.
CHETRY: And it's just fascinating to hear more about it. And all this week, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is looking how science and medicine is really redefining the notion of death, bringing you stories of medical miracles and people who truly cheated deaths.
Sanjay is here this morning.
Great to see you, by the way.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
CHETRY: So, this whole concept of cheating death is something that you say you've been thinking about since medical school. Do we really -- is the actual condition as bad as we think it is or -- I mean, how do you come back from the dead?
GUPTA: Well, you know, we think of -- we thing of death as -- we think of this process sort of as a bright white line between life and death. You know, you're alive and then you're dead. And we now know, it's really much more of a process. And the good news is, there are opportunities to reverse that at any point along the way.
The story I'm about to tell you, guys, is a story couldn't have told 10 years ago. It simply could not have happened. He wouldn't be here. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JOAN BROOKS, CHRIS BROOKS'S MOTHER: Christopher!
911 OPERATOR: 911, what's the emergency?
CHRIS BROOKS'S FATHER: Middletown Township.
911 OPERATOR: What's the problem?
CHRIS BROOKS'S FATHER: My son is not responding here. He's breathing and his eyes are open. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if he's snoring...
911 OPERATOR: Is he awake and talking to you or not?
CHRIS BROOKS'S FATHER: No, he's not.
J. BROOKS: Hurry up.
911 OPERATOR: I'm going to give you some instructions. Just stay on the line.
J. BROOKS: Christopher! Christopher!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice-over): They are talking about Christopher Brooks. He's 22 years old. He's just months from college graduation and he was working construction part-time and also living at home with his family.
(on camera): When that 911 call came in, Chris Brooks was dead -- clinically dead for more than 15 minutes. His heart stopped beating shortly after 3:00 in the morning on November 15th, 2008.
But here's the thing. It wasn't the end. In his case and several others that you're about to see, death was reversible.
The night Chris Brooks died began innocently enough at this bowling alley in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, a night out with a girl and his best friend (INAUDIBLE).
Was he acting any differently at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he was actually acting himself. You know, always the life of the party.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BROOKS: He's 22. Just got home from college to work for the weekend. He went bowling.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BROOKS: Plugged his cell phone in here and woke me up. And he goes, "It's just mom, I'm plugging my cell phone in." I said, "OK, are you going to sleep here?" He said, "Yes, I think I'll just sleep down here tonight."
GUPTA (voice-over): Moments later there was a noise from the couch. Joan thought it was snoring, but something wasn't right.
BROOKS: I came over and I bend over. And I went to smack his face, and he went like this. And then I put my hands down on both his arms to smack his face again, and then I'm like, Christopher, what's going on (ph) -- I can't wake him up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: I like to tell you, we have much more of Chris's story this weekend, but he does well. In fact, he has no residual problems at all. His brain is working well. He went -- for so long without oxygenated blood to his brain. A lot of doctors in the past would have sort of given up.
One important takeaway here and I think this is something I've talked about a lot, is this idea of just doing chest compressions right away. We know that people want to help someone in cardiac arrests but often they don't, they're sort of fearful. They don't know how to do the mouth-to-mouth.
Simply call 911, get your hands on the chest right between the breast bones and push as hard as you can for 100 times a minute until the paramedics get there. That can exponentially increase someone's survival.
CHETRY: You're basically pumping their heart on the outside?
GUPTA: Yes, the idea is that you have oxygen in the blood. It's still there if the person suddenly collapse. The trick is to move that oxygenated blood around the body and to stop for nothing. Because if you stop even to give the mouth to mouth, you're not moving the blood around even 10 seconds can make a difference.
ROBERTS: I saw you demonstrating that with Matthew McConaughey.
GUPTA: Yes.
ROBERTS: On "LARRY KING LIVE" the other night.
GUPTA: He was very good at it. I thought him that in just a few minutes.
ROBERTS: So, what are the statistics? Your chances of survival decreases by 10 percent for every minute.
GUPTA: That's right.
ROBERTS: You're not breathing.
GUPTA: That's right. For every minute. And if no one helps, really, the likelihood of surviving a cardiac arrest is next to nil, about three percent, two to three percent. If you start to do something, anything at all, they can go up by 500 percent.
ROBERTS: So what's the lesson here? Just do something, anything.
GUPTA: Yes. Well, and to not even worry about the mouth to mouth, because that seems to be the hold out. That seems to be where people get a little stumbled in terms of what they want to do. If you can simply just do the chest compressions that makes a huge difference.
ROBERTS: But only for the first what? How many minutes?
GUPTA: Well, you have to call 911. And so average paramedic sort of arrival time varies from city to city, but in New York, for example, it's around eight minutes. And the likelihood is you got about 10 minutes of oxygenated blood in your body. So the timing seems to work out. They may come, put a breathing tube in, give a shock, do all sort of other things. Just keep pumping on the chest. And you're acting like an artificial heart.
ROBERTS: Right.
GUPTA: For that period of time.
CHETRY: Very interesting stuff. Absolutely. Well, "Cheating Death," tomorrow in our series. It's a story that you probably won't believe. It's a woman who fell through thin ice. She was clinically dead for three hours before doctors were able to thaw her out and bring her body temperature back up and bring her body back to life. Sanjay is going to be taking the plunge into 38 degree water. Water so cold that it can burn to try to get a sense of what seems impossible. Better you than us.
All right. Don't miss the prime time debut of Sanjay's special, "Cheating Death," this Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
ROBERTS: It's a fascinating series. You want to watch it for sure and read the new book, too.
We're crossing the half hour, checking our top stories. New violence showing that the Taliban still has a pulse in Pakistan. Pakistan says it bombed suspected hideouts in the region that was once considered Taliban free, killing 13 suspected militants. The air strikes came in after a bloody 20-hour siege and gun battle that's Pakistan's equivalent to the (INAUDIBLE) that killed more than a dozen people.
CHETRY: Well, the feds have arrested a man they say helped hijack Pan Am Flight 281 more than 40 years ago. Sixty-six-year-old Luis Soltren was already in State Department custody when he flew into JFK yesterday. The 1968 flight was scheduled to go from New York to Puerto Rico and ended up in Havana, Cuba. Officials say he terrorized dozens of passengers during that hijacking. They're not saying how they finally caught him. Soltren is expected in court tomorrow here in Manhattan.
ROBERTS: And a day after President Obama repeated his campaign promise to end the military's don't ask-don't tell policy and the Defense of Marriage Act. Thousands rallied for gay rights in Washington. But on "State of the Union" with John King yesterday, members of the president's own party refused to commit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": ... on the Defense of Marriage Act with Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania vote to repeal it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John, I've said in the past, I don't think that's the way to go.
KING: I asked if you would vote to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, and you didn't answer the question. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The challenge for me is we had had on the ballot and there has been passage in Michigan of a law prohibiting gay marriage. So I think for a number of us, that becomes a challenge in terms of what has happened in terms of voting in our state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: President Obama spoke to the nation's largest gay and lesbian rights group on Saturday urging gay rights activist to keep the pressure on him and comparing the battle of gay rights to civil rights struggle.
While it's safe to say that our next guests are very happy to be here this morning talking about this whole idea of cheating death that's because they did cheat death last week. Whitney and Ben Page spent 12 hours in the ocean in Florida Bay clinging to a buoy after their small plane went down off the south coast of Florida. The husband and wife were among three people who survived the crash. They're in Marathon this morning to talk about the ordeal.
Whitney, Ben, good to talk to you this morning. Glad you're still with us.
BEN PAGE, SURVIVED PLANE CRASH: Good morning.
ROBERTS: Ben...
B. PAGE: Glad to be here.
ROBERTS: You looked a little bit banged up there. Obviously there were some problems when the plane went down in terms of injuries. Let's set the stage for folks here.
Your father-in-law, Ben and your father, Whitney had flown up from Marathon to Tampa to pick you up to bring you back down to Marathon for your mom's 50th birthday. Everything seemed to be fine until you got about five miles off the southern tip of Cape Sabel there at the very bottom end of the Florida peninsula. What happened then?
W. PAGE: Everything went quiet. WE thought how weird. (INAUDIBLE) call over a may day to the air traffic controller and we thought well that's not right. And so he said, grab the life jackets, we're going to hit the water.
ROBERTS: Right. So Ben, what had happened?
B. PAGE: As far as I know, the engine quit and he tried everything he knew to do and he had no other choice than to take us down.
ROBERTS: Wow.
B. PAGE: That's where we were headed.
ROBERTS: So you were headed for Florida bay. You know, we all think of flight 1549, the U.S. Airways flight that went into the Hudson River back in January. What is it like for you folks to land on water?
W. PAGE: It was dark. We couldn't even see it. We knew we were going down but we had no idea when we hit. And then finally bam, there's the water. And well, thankfully we got out really quickly. And we ended up out on the wing and then into the water.
ROBERTS: Ben, your forehead there would seem to indicate that the impact was fairly substantial.
B. PAGE: It was. It was very rough. I believe we hit the water about 80 I think. And from 80 to 0 in a split second. That's a very quick stop.
ROBERTS: Yes but it's extraordinary Whitney, that your father was able to land the plane safely as you said on a very, very dark night there in Florida Bay. Once you got out on the wing, what was the first thing that went through your mind?
W. PAGE: Get away from the plane because it's sinking.
ROBERTS: Right.
W. PAGE: So we just - we flopped off the wing and into the water and just kicked as hard as we could to get out from under the tail of the plane as it was going down.
ROBERTS: So there were three of you, only two life jackets, Ben, what did do you?
B. PAGE: We decided to tie the two life jackets together and make shift raft to accommodate all three of us. And it worked. It worked great.
ROBERTS: And you were floating along in the current there and obviously you didn't want to drift too far because air traffic controllers had a certain idea of where you went down. It actually sent out search and rescue so you were floating along there on the current in your make shift raft. What happened then?
B. PAGE: We found a lobster buoy but the current was too hard, too fast for us. We held on for a little while but the waves and current were just too much. So we let go of that and drifted for about maybe another hour or two. And found another buoy and the current had subsided a little bit. So that was easier to hold on to. We tied on to that and sat there about nine hours, 10 hours.
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.
So you were in the water for a little more than 12 hours. And here it is, as you've said Whitney, it's evening, it's overnight, very dark out there. The search and rescue operation started about 9:30. The plane went down at 9:00, search and rescue operations started about a half hour later. Could you hear the planes and helicopters flying overhead, the patrols that were patrolling around looking for you?
W. PAGE: Yes, we could hear them. We could see them unfortunately they were searching 2,200 square miles so three little heads bobbing in the ocean, we were pretty hard to see.
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.
W. PAGE: We waved as hard as we could.
ROBERTS: I bet. So what happened at first light?
B. PAGE: We just counted down for that sun to rise. When the sun came up we saw a plane off in the distance several miles off in the distance and you know, that was still a glimmer of hope that they were still looking for us. We knew that they were there. We just couldn't - they weren't very close.
ROBERTS: It must have been a long and lonely 12 hours before a Coast Guard finally came and picked you up. There were jelly fish in the water. I mean, the water wasn't too cool as I understand. It was high 70's and low 80s there, but it must be an awfully lonely 12 hours to spend out there.
W. PAGE: Yes.
B. PAGE: It was. Like you said lots of jelly fish. They were there keeping us company for sure.
B. PAGE: Keeping us alert.
W. PAGE: At least every hour somebody got a sting but...
ROBERTS: Right.
I just can't imagine being out there for that long. And Whitney, we should mention that you suffered an injury in the crash as well. You fractured a vertebrae.
W. PAGE: Yes. I'm sitting here braced up on a pillow. I'm good.
ROBERTS: All right. Are you feeling all right though?
W. PAGE: Yes. Happy.
B. PAGE: We we're so glad to be alive and it was a miracle and you know, Peter is a great pilot. He started the steps for us to get rescued. If he didn't land that plane, we wouldn't be here.
ROBERTS: Oh, man. I just can't imagine. You were so fortunate. Have you rescheduled, Whitney, your mom's 50th birthday party?
W. PAGE: She said she doesn't even care. This was the best news of her life when we were alive. So she said she could care less about a missed birthday party. ROBERTS: I bet it is. Well, we're certainly glad that you're still with us. I tell you, what an ordeal. Whitney Page, Ben Page. Good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.
B. PAGE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Can you imagine?
CHETRY: It's amazing. It is really amazing.
ROBERTS: The fact that he could -- when it was so dark bring that plane down and not crash it. That's extraordinary.
CHETRY: It is. It really is.
ROBERTS: There's no landing lights out there.
CHETRY: No. Not at all. Somebody - he had an angel up there.
Well in Florida, they were having a unique problem of wild animal attacks. They are increasing. Our John Zarrella like only John knows how is going to take us out there and see what it is like right now to fight off an emu, a raccoon, a snake, a spider. Maybe, 40 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: A little iguana there. It's 43 1/2 minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. You know, they are out there and their numbers are growing every day, in the grass, behind a bush maybe, in the water. They are ready to strike.
ROBERTS: Yes. Across the state of Florida, wild animal attacks on people are on the rise. And as our John Zarrella tells us, officials are worried things could go from bad to worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Florida, the usual suspects are increasingly unusual. Not even human.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We manage to pull it out of the weeds and take it into custody.
ZARRELLA: This python found at a Miami nursery, 13 feet long. In Tampa, a family of attackers all wore masks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm at my neighbor's house, just attacked by some raccoons, cut very badly.
ZARRELLA: The raccoons made their getaway after injuring an elderly woman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We used to be out with the children just playing in the backyard. I just don't feel safe doing that any more.
ZARRELLA: Seven-year-old Madison Wells would agree. She has 23 stitches in her foot courtesy of an iguana.
MADISON WELLS: I thought I was going to be dead. It wasn't fun.
ZARRELLA: Near Pensacola, an emu, like this one, clawed a woman who got too close. So what's going on? Why are animals on the attack?
RON MAGILL, MIAMI METROZOO: First of all, if you run into anything in the wild, leave it alone.
ZARRELLA: The problem, says Miami Metrozoo's Ron Magill, is animals and humans are colliding more because of the continuing loss of wildlife habitat. On top of that, the climate is perfect for exotic species that shouldn't be here at all, like this python.
ZARRELLA (on camera): Oh, yes. That is a load.
MAGILL: Oh, yes. No, it's a load. It's a load. It's a big snake.
This place has become the Ellis Island of exotic species, because so many animals come through here. First of all, exotic species, this is a big port where they enter, but then so many people keep them as pets, and they either escape or they're released and then they start to thrive.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Like the Bufo toad that excretes a poison that can kill a dog and this fearless night nole (ph).
MAGILL: He'll bite you. He'll bite you. Look at that. They're aggressive (ph).
ZARRELLA: And iguanas? They're everywhere - sunning in a tree, hanging out in the grass near a canal and they don't scare easy.
ZARRELLA (on camera): But I can probably pop over here because I don't want them to come after me. But look, we can come right up to them right here, and look how close before he actually takes off.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): With no way to eradicate flourishing nuisance species, wildlife experts say confrontations are only going to increase and in a decade or two, Florida might be a zoo on the loose.
John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: You know, a confrontation with that little one that was nibbling on his knuckle, that wouldn't be bad.
CHETRY: No, but...
ROBERTS: But an alligator? That's another thing.
CHETRY: Exactly. How about mauled by an emu? How do you explain that one at work?
ROBERTS: It seems like the sort of thing you wouldn't want to share with your co-workers.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Mauled by an emu today. What?
How would you like to live next door to the president and the First Lady? No, not in Washington - in Chicago. Well, you can! The next door neighbor's house is up for sale. We'll tell you all about it. Alina Cho joins us.
Forty-seven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, as it's Columbus Day, only fitting that we show you the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle outside the Time Warner Center here, our New York headquarters of CNN. Sunny and 44 degrees right now, pretty chilly out there. Later on today, mostly cloudy, chance of rain with a high of 57. Not a great Columbus Day for you, but, you know, a lot of people got the day off. So day off, even if the weather's lousy, better than a day at work, right?
Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's easy to laugh, but if you had millions of people on live television watching you, could you remember all the words to the national anthem? It all proved a little too much for actor and singer Jesse McCartney. Here he is yesterday before NASCAR's Pepsi 500 in Fontana, California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE MCCARTNEY: (singing the National Anthem).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Yes. Turning to the wife saying, didn't he miss a line in there somewhere? So when you're singing the national anthem, you're supposed to know the words. You're not supposed to leave out an entire line.
CHETRY: Yes. Maybe he was trying to speed things up so they could get to the race, you know? How embarrassing, though. It's such a hard song to sing. You know, we have had so many of those national anthem fails, as they say.
Rob Marciano joins us now - You've been in NASCAR?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know...
CHETRY: Maybe he just wanted to speed things up a bit, the poor guy. MARCIANO: Maybe. You know, they try to coordinate the end of the national anthem with often a military flyover, so, you know, maybe they were trying to make that a little bit quicker and time that. It's a tough combination of things.
Hey, guys. Happy Columbus Day. It's a proud day for - for us Italians out here, as our countrymen accidentally slammed into the US...
CHETRY: There you go.
MARCIANO: ... or at least North America, to give us what we have today.
All right. Now, Columbus Day, actually historically does bring some nasty weather in spots, especially across the west and the northwest. We'll talk about a storm there in just a sec, but cold air across the Midwest and also heavy rain again across parts of the south. Speaking of cold air, we mentioned the Colorado Rockies against the Phillies Saturday, got canceled because of snow and then last night it was bitterly cold and they're going to play again tonight. There might still be a little bit of snowfall, but I think most of it has headed off to the east.
Snow across parts of Minneapolis today. That could continue to be a problem with maybe an inch or two piling up. If you are doing some travel today, Atlanta, Charlotte and Memphis, that's where the heavy rain's going to be. Minneapolis and Denver, some leftover snows there in Dallas. Houston might see some morning clouds and fog.
John and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: All right. Rob, happy Columbus Day for you.
MARCIANO: Thank you. Likewise.
CHETRY: Thanks.
Well, still ahead, you may have a chance to live right next door to the First Family because - we're not talking about the White House, but the house in Chicago, the one right next door to the Obamas, it's for sale. Alina Cho gets a chance to check it out. She's going to give you a sneak peak in just a minute.
Fifty-three minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Oh, well! Welcome. It is a beautiful 57 minutes past the hour. Sorry.
There's a beautiful shot of Chicago, Illinois this morning - I'm just so into the music, you know? It's cloudy right now, 44 degrees. It's pretty warm, actually, compared to a lot of parts out west today. A little later, though, a few showers, 51 degrees for a high. And welcome back to the most news in the morning. There is a new for sale listing in Chicago that's getting some national attention. It's a colonial mansion on a safe, quiet block.
ROBERTS: Yes. Safer and quieter than it's ever been. But if you're thinking about buying, you have to get clearance from the Secret Service first.
Our Alina Cho is here with that story, live for us this morning. Good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I saw the house. I went to Chicago last week. It's a very, very special property, guys. You know, it is a beautiful mansion. But guess what? It's not the house that's getting all the attention, it's where it is.
You know the old adage about real estate is true - location, location, location.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): How much would you pay for this house - 16,000 square feet, 17 rooms, three floors - next door to the president?
BILL GRIMSHAW, OBAMA'S NEIGHBOR: Location, location, location.
CHO: 5040 South Greenwood Avenue is next door to 5046, home to the Obamas. Not this home - this one, which also has round-the-clock Secret Service. Peer out the dining room window of Bill Grimshaw's place and just 15 feet away is the Chicago home of the president. Grimshaw and his wife bought their house in 1973 for $35,000.
CHO (on camera): Why would you want to sell?
GRIMSHAW: It's expensive to live here. And then, there's this thing the realtors are calling the "Obama Factor".
CHO (voice-over): There's more - cache (ph). President Obama taped a commercial at the Grimshaw home during the campaign.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From our family to yours, I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message.
MALIA OBAMA, ELDER FIRST DAUGHTER OF THE UNITED STATES: Merry Christmas.
SASHA OBAMA, YOUNGER FIRST DAUGHTER OF THE UNITED STATES: Happy holidays.
CHO: There's the neighborhood dog. Urban legend has it Malia and Sasha Obama grew fond of dogs after playing this one.
The downside, getting in is almost like breaking into Fort Knox. Two barricades, Secret Service, everyone is pre-screened.
GRIMSHAW: People don't drop in on the Grimshaws anymore. CHO: But there is an upside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've not locked their front door in two years.
CHO: Then there's that chance you could get a glimpse of the first family.
GRIMSHAW: Michelle has rules, and Michelle's a very strong woman. And so when Barack wanted to have a cigarette, he'd go out in the back porch to smoke, and gave my wife ideas.
CHO: Anyone who buys the house should be prepared. Friends who drop in may have ulterior motives, like the time the Grimshaws had a Christmas party.
GRIMSHAW: They stood most of the time, staring out the window at Barack's house. I'd say, "Would you like a sandwich? Would you like a drink?" "No, we're fine."
CHO: Yes, but to be the president's neighbor.
CHO (on camera): Some people might say that you are sitting on the most important property in the United States right now.
GRIMSHAW: Well, there's the White House.
CHO (voice-over): That one's not for sale. This one is. Next door to the Obama's, yours if the price is right.
(on camera): Beautiful, beautiful home. A little bit of a fixer-upper.
GRIMSHAW: Fixer-upper. The basement is a disaster. It's...
CHO: You're an honest man.
GRIMSHAW: Well, I think I'm selling location and not my basement. So, I can afford to be honest.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Absolutely right -- you know, which begs the question, how much will it cost you? Well, to give you an idea, the Obamas paid $1.65 million for their Chicago home back in 2005, but the market is down about 20 percent in Chicago. The realtor says the Grimshaw home was down the block in this market, they could probably ask $1.5 million. But, remember, there's that Obama factor. What that's worth, nobody knows.
But a warning, guys -- if you want to even see the house, you have to be able to prove that you can pay for it. And that means $1.5 million in the bank.
CHETRY: At least. Oh, in the bank? You have to be able to hand over cash for it.
CHO: That's right.
ROBERTS: They want cash?
CHO: Well, it can be -- they want to show that you can pay for it, and so that you have assets totaling $1.5 million.
ROBERTS: Just looking on their Web site here, it says, "5040 South Greenwood Avenue, one of the most prestigious addresses in the United States."
CHO: That's right. Listen, a listing like this is rare. But it's not the first time this has happened. There was a home next to FDR's farmhouse near Poughkeepsie that sold. The guy who bought really wanted to get it because he wanted a political appointment. And guess what? It worked. He became the undersecretary to the navy during World War I and he eventually became secretary to the navy.
So, hey, you can buy proximity to the president.
CHETRY: How about that? Buying (INAUDIBLE).
Now, I have to laugh, we were joking around that you need -- you needed Secret Service clearance to even view it.
CHO: You do.
CHETRY: And I said, yes, that's why you were wearing a press pass or a placard. And it was actually a vintage necklace.
CHO: I'm sorry, a little bit, you know?
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: And John goes, "You should see the type of stuff the Secret Service hands out these days. They're very fancy."
CHO: Anyway. We digress.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Alina.
CHO: You bet.
