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American Morning
Afghan Election Fraud; Poll Shows More Americans Against Sending Troops to Afghanistan; Wall Street Gains, Main Street Pains, Afghanistan Election, Apple Earnings; Talking a Big Game; Changing School Lunches; 3 Days to Dr. Gupta's Big 4-0; A Different Kind of Leader
Aired October 20, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, good morning once again. It is Tuesday, October 20th. Welcome to AMERICAN. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Roberts. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
The U.S. launching a full court press to force after Afghan President Hamid Karzai to accept the need for a new election, or at very least, to enter a power-sharing agreement with his rival, Abdullah Abdullah. The push coming after a U.N.-backed panel confirmed what many people suspected the summer election was riddled with fraud.
We're live on the ground in Afghanistan this morning.
CHETRY: Many big banks and financial firms are reporting huge profits after receiving billions of government bailouts. Some of them now are setting aside record sums for executive salaries and bonuses. So, what exactly happened to all those promises from Washington to crack down on corporate greed?
ROBERTS: And they're all over the air. Loud, opinionated radio talk show hosts. Sure, they talk a big game, but how much political power do they really have? Do fans equal votes?
In our special series, "Talk Radio," we'll look at the political might of it. Is it all overblown?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sucker before he shoots you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're scaring the bejesus out of America.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: They're just too gutless to say so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody who's trying to take away your freedom. BOB DURGIN, WHP TALK RADIO HOST: I guess, we're powerful to a degree, but so are all the other media. "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times," are they powerful? You're damned right they are. So, why can't we be powerful?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, they certainly can't get people riled up. Our Carol Costello's special "Talk Radio" series continues this morning.
But first, a growing political vacuum in Afghanistan after a United Nations report declared widespread voter fraud there. Right now, the world is waiting for President Hamid Karzai's next move. He could accept a runoff election or enter a power-sharing agreement with his rival, Abdullah Abdullah. It's a decision that must be made after a U.N.-backed commission threw out about one out of every three votes that was cast for Karzai back in August.
Our Chris Lawrence is live in Kabul for us this morning -- Kabul this morning.
Chris, what's next here in this play?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we've got some breaking news to report. A spokesman for the Independent Election Commission has just confirmed to CNN that the election has been moved to the second round and a runoff election has been tentatively set for Saturday, November 7th.
Now, the key will be hearing what President Karzai has to say, now that the Independent Election Commission has verified some of the results from that investigation into fraud and pushed this to a runoff. Now, Karzai has to say either he will agree to that runoff or try to work out some sort of deal with his challenger Abdullah Abdullah and try to form some sort of power-sharing agreement -- John?
ROBERTS: Chris, how does this affect the decision that the president is mulling over now, whether to send more American troops into Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, who's in charge of all the forces there, wants 40,000 troops, may be able to deal with something less than that, but that's his target figure.
How does this all play into that?
LAWRENCE: Well, you're getting really two very different opinions coming out of different agencies connected to the White House. The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is saying that any decision on a troop increase depends on the Afghan government being legitimate and credible, pushing the decision on the troop increase until after the election is settled.
On the other hand, you have Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying that this is a complicated situation and it's not going to be simple anytime soon, and that President Obama will probably have to make his decision on a troop increase within the context of this ongoing drama with the Afghan election. And now, that the Independent Election Commission has said it will go to a runoff -- again, unless there is some sort of brokered deal, that is weeks and weeks now in which U.S. and NATO forces will have to ramp up now and start to prepare to secure another election -- John?
ROBERTS: Chris, we've been waiting all day for Karzai to come out and hold this press conference. Do we have any clearer idea of when that's going to happen?
LAWRENCE: From what I've been told, all the reporters are waiting there. Everything is in place at the presidential palace. In fact, I spoke just a few minutes ago with a spokesman for his primary challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, he said they are watching and waiting, and they are waiting to give a statement of their intentions, just as soon as they hear what President Karzai has to say.
ROBERTS: We'll keep watching it closely. Chris Lawrence for us in Kabul this morning -- Chris, thanks.
CHETRY: And now, it seems the American people are finding it harder to get behind the war in Afghanistan. There's a new CNN/Opinion Research poll showing that a solid majority of those polled now oppose sending in more troops. Also, more than half the country now believes that this is turning into another Vietnam.
Candy Crowley now on why the hardest decision a president has to make just got even harder.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran and John.
You know, the White House says the president will not make decisions about Afghanistan according to public opinion. But if he did, the answer would be clear because Americans think they have some of the answers to the questions the president and his advisers are asking themselves.
RAHM EMANUEL, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We've had five meetings. There's another set of meetings this week and the following week.
CROWLEY (voice-over): The president may be undecided on Afghanistan and his advisers seem divided, but Americans are decidedly not. With the latest polls showing just 39 percent of Americans favor sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan; 59 percent are opposed.
In general, the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows an America broadly skeptical that Afghanistan can pull itself together under a stable government and fearful of Vietnam syndrome, vaguely defined as fear of an unending, unwinnable war. Fifty-two percent think Afghanistan has turned into another Vietnam, 46 percent disagree with that. In the latter category, Senator John Kerry, a decorated war veteran who became known for his opposition to the Vietnam War upon his return home. Afghanistan, Kerry says emphatically, is not Vietnam.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We are here in Afghanistan because people attacked us here, in the most significant attack against the United States since Pearl Harbor. We are here because there are still people at large who are plotting against the United States of America. And we are here because the stability of this region is a critical, strategic interest to the United States.
CROWLEY: And that's one of the curious twists of the poll, because most Americans agree with the senator. Sixty percent say it's necessary to keep troops in Afghanistan to prevent terrorism in the U.S. But at the same time, 57 percent of Americans say they oppose the war.
CNN Pollster Keating Holland thinks, in part, some Americans no longer believe terrorism should be fought at any cost.
KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLING DIRECTOR: Americans don't feel the same personal jeopardy when it comes to terrorism that they felt in 2001 and 2002. Others may simply see the benefit of preventing a terrorist attack somewhere in the United States being outweighed by the costs associated with a long, ongoing war that involves a lot of troops and a lot of money.
CROWLEY: It's not known when and what the president will decide about Afghanistan, but it's pretty clear that should he send more troops, he'll have a big sales job ahead of him with the American people.
(on camera): And that job will be particularly difficult among older Americans, because when it comes to equating Afghanistan with Vietnam, the sentiment was strongest among seniors, one of the most reliable midterm voting blocs -- Kiran and John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. Candy Crowley, thanks so much.
Let me take real quick back to Afghanistan, a live picture now. And you see the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, as well as Senator John Kerry. A moment ago, as Chris Lawrence said a spokesman for the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission said there will be an independent runoff between President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, set to take place November 7th.
And we expect to hear President Karzai's reaction to that and as soon as we get the translation, we'll bring it to you live.
ROBERTS: Yes, and two options here. Karzai could agree to the runoff election or he could also enter into some sort of power-sharing agreement with Abdullah Abdullah, his main challenger. I mean, he could reject it outright, but I doubt that that will happen. So, we'll see how this is going to go over the coming moments.
New this morning, a Maryland scientist who helped discover evidence of water on the south pole of the moon has been arrested and charged with spying. He's expected in federal court later on today. The Justice Department says 57-year-old Stewart David Nozette attempted to pass classified U.S. defense secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. He's worked for the White House and the Defense Department, also had special clearance when he was employed by the Department of Energy.
CHETRY: The fertility doctor who treated the woman known as "Octomom" has been kicked out of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Michael Kamrava was expelled for what the organization calls repeatedly violating the group's standards. Nadya Suleman says he implanted her with six embryos, far more than national guidelines specify, which then led to eight births.
ROBERTS: And pay no attention to that man behind the podium. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it was victimized by liberal activists who e-mailed fake news releases and held a bogus news conference announcing the business lobby had suddenly changed its position on global warming. A real chamber official finally confronted the imposter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you really, sir? And do you have a business card? Are you with the U.S. Chamber?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. We can discuss it afterwards, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I see your business card?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I see yours?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you here representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I am.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I work there and you do not look familiar to me at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could I see your business card?
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Battle of business cards going on there. Several news organizations were taken in by the hoax. CNN was not one of them. Apparently, now the chamber wants a police investigation as to how this guy got there in the first place. But...
CHETRY: I'm looking for my business card.
ROBERTS: Is that the sort of thing the police investigate?
CHETRY: I don't know. Can I see a copy of your license, please? Are you supposed to be here right now?
ROBERTS: I believe I am, although -- if I can sleep in tomorrow.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Maybe challenged that.
CHETRY: You can't. You have to be at the chamber of commerce.
ROBERTS: So, police be investigating whether or not if somebody perpetrated a hoax at the National Press Club at the expense of the chamber of commerce?
CHETRY: I guess so.
ROBERTS: I don't know. Is that criminal behavior?
CHETRY: We'll find out. I think -- they both seemed a little -- anyway, I don't know. We'll have to see. I thought...
ROBERTS: Maybe if the guy had set loose of balloon at the press conference and claimed that his 6-year-old son was in it, maybe then you've got a case.
CHETRY: Exactly. Then they'd start looking at you.
Who will be joining us is one of our favorite guests of the program, Congressman Ron Paul. He's going to be here live to talk to us a little bit more about what is going on.
A lot of people are saying, such a huge disconnect between what's happening on Main Street and the pain the everyday Americans are feeling and the huge bonuses set to be delivered once again on Wall Street in wake of the billions of bailout money. I'm sure Congressman Paul has something to say about whether we need more regulation and he can tell us what happened.
Eleven minutes after the hour.
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(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Beautiful shot this morning. Can't even tell it's a concrete jungle from that shot. A look at New York Harbor. Lady Liberty standing proud. Partly cloudy today, 63 degrees for a high, but right now, it's fair and it's only 47.
Fourteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
You know, we've seen these big gains on Wall Street, but still plenty of pain being felt on Main Street. It's a mix that's hard to figure for many Americans, given an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent.
According to "The Wall Street Journal," the nation's top 23 banks and investment firms are poised to pay a record $140 billion, with a "B," in bonuses to their top executives. Many of those banks got bailout money, some of them were able to pay it back, of course, leaving many to wonder if they're on road to repeat their past mistakes.
Joining me now from Clute, Texas, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, and the author of "End the Fed."
Great to see you this morning.
REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Thanks. Nice to be with you.
CHETRY: And, Congressman, it just seemed like yesterday that we were talking about these firms on the brink of collapse. We poured in a record amount of money -- taxpayer money -- into rescuing these firms in the form of that bailout, and now, we're talking record profits. At the same time, we're not seeing that same wealth trickle out to Main Street.
So, what's going on?
PAUL: Well, they take care of their own. There's a great deal of influence in Washington, from Wall Street. And I think most people have known about it, but they're really coming to the understanding of how it really works.
If things are going well, when the bubble is being formed and the fed makes easy credit, a lot of people would make a lot of money. But that's doomed to fail. The bubble burst. And rightfully, the thing to do then is to put people in jail, if they committed fraud. And the people who are bankrupt, let them go bankrupt. Well, we didn't do that. Very little fraud was prosecuted and the people who were supposed to go bankrupt got bailed out. Some went bankrupt, if they didn't have enough influence like Lehman brothers, they went bankrupt. But somebody like Goldman Sachs, they're in a much better position. So they really got the bailout and they're making tons of money.
CHETRY: Well, you were against the bailout in the first place. You were somebody who said you didn't think - you wanted the chips to fall where they may. And there were very convincing arguments on the opposite side that if we let this happen, this might be something from which we might not recover. Is this how you expected things to be after the bailout, record profits for some of the top banks?
PAUL: Well, I wouldn't have been able to predict and say what the profits would be. But, no, I'm not surprised there's been a recovery. I think markets work this way. The stock market has recovered 50 percent. But a lot of times that has happened, that happened in the 1930s. So these same banks right now that are making tons of money and stashing it away, they're not out of the woods when the next downturn occurs. So, I don't think it's over, but we have to wonder, who's pulling the strings? You know, it is said that the congress didn't have enough strings attached to the money that they were giving away, but I think the strings go in the other direction. I think Wall Street has the strings on Washington. And they pull and do what they want and that's where the corruption is. They control the monetary system. That's why it's so important that we find out how the fed deals with banks secretly and how they deal with international finances and international central banks and other governments.
That's where a lot of shenanigans are going on and they're hysterical if they think the congress is going to find out exactly what they do behind the scenes and why some of these companies and some of these banks, you know, do so well why the average guy on main street gets clobbered. This is characteristic of the monetary system we have. This is not a surprise.
CHETRY: In the past, you've been against regulation. You've been a free market person, who, you know, libertarian, free market, who thinks that, you know, really, you've got to let business go where it goes. In this situation though, there were no strings attached. And as we understand it, there's a big lobbying effort under way to sort of water down any future regulations. Is this an example where maybe we do need some regulations? Because it doesn't look like in some of these instances that big business is going to police itself.
PAUL: Well, regulation has to be on the cause of the problem. The cause of the problem is easy credit. So, the regulation has to be on the Federal Reserve. Then if things get out of whack, there are still regulations. It's not like there wouldn't be any regulations. But the regulations come in a different manner. They come through bankruptcy. We didn't permit the bankruptcies and we did the bailing out. We perpetuated the problem by inflating the currency and bailing out the people who were benefiting. So fraud is a very significant problem that governments should be involved in. You should deal with that but the government's committing the fraud when they create this money and deal with their special interests. It's a fraudulent monetary system. They ran a counterfeiting operation. So, yes, the regulations have to be there, but they can't allow -- we can't allow the central bank to create the bubble and say that it is unstable and we can prevent the problems by regulations. I think it's all twisted around.
CHETRY: All right, one of the questions...
PAUL: The regulations have to come first by preventing -- pardon me?
CHETRY: Oh, I was just going to say, one of the regulations that has been tossed around out there is whether or not we need to have some sort of cap on executive compensation or taxes on executive compensation to limit it. You were against taxing it when the whole AIG bonus debacle was happening. What do you think now? Is it acceptable to you that there is billions and billions of dollars in bonuses being set aside for executives? PAUL: Yes, this is a terrible position for me to be in, because it's taxpayers' money, we have responsibilities that we should restrict it. Say huge benefits for General Motors, this would be criminal because it's the taxpayers' money. At the same time, now it's a mixed deal. They get our money, they return it, they claim they're private, and now we're talking about regulating them. That introduces a whole new problem of the power of government to come in and start having wage and price controls and bonus controls and media control -- who knows what it is.
So it's very, very bad. That's why once you embark on a program like this, you get into a lot more trouble. One problem causes two new problems. That's why you have to stop it cold, stop inflation, and rely on free market principles. But right now, there is no easy answer. But my easiest answer I can give is, if it's government, and they so-call own something, yes, we have a responsibility of dealing with that and getting it back into the private sector as quickly as possible and quit all this bailing out and quit all this inflation, quit all this big government stuff that created this monster. And we could get back on our feet again.
If we wouldn't have done anything a year ago, yes, there would have been a lot of bankruptcies. But that would be all over now and we'd be going back to work again and people have started saving and that is very good. But none of this is behind us. All we have done is prolong the agony and very soon people are going to realize, in spite of all these huge profits, Wall Street is still a shaky place to be, even though the big guys are going to rip us off and get away with billions of dollars, the system is not going to be revived. We're not going to revive the dollar reserve standard around financial markets that has existed for 35 years. We have to devise a new system and right now we're only playing games with what we have.
CHETRY: All right. Congressman Ron Paul, great perspective this morning. Thanks for being with us.
PAUL: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So, we've been following the latest news out of Afghanistan and we have some new developments this morning, just moments ago at a press conference, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said that he does accept the results of the independent election commission and he will in fact agree to a runoff election. That will be held on November 7th. It will be between Hamid Karzai and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. Now, of course, there's always the potential for them between now and then for them to broker a power sharing arrangement and avoid a runoff election. But for the moment, President Karzai accepting the idea of a runoff election to be held in Afghanistan on November 7th.
So, new information out about school lunches. What are our kids eating and is it nutritious enough or does it really need to be changed? The Institute of Medicine, in conjunction with children's hospital out of Philadelphia, famous hospital, does a lot of great research into nutrition for young people, has come out with some new guidelines, some changes that it thinks. So, you're looking at French fries there, well they may be off the menu. And instead, cruciferous vegetables may be the order of the day. Dr. Virginia Stallings of Children's Hospital joins us coming up in just a few minutes. Twenty-two minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Christine Romans here this morning, "Minding Your Business." Good morning to you.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple. That's all they're talking about this morning.
ROBERTS: An Apple a day is good for investors.
ROMANS: Geez. Apple shares are up really sharply this year. What was the statistic you were saying earlier? If you had $10,000 in Apple at the beginning of the year, you would be up to what, like...
CHETRY: Almost 24 Gs.
ROBERTS: $23,700. If you had bought five years ago, imagine it would be up.
ROMANS: I wish I had done that. But, alas, I did not. Look, iPods, they've sold 8 percent fewer iPods in the quarter, but it didn't matter. iPhones, Macs. They sold more iPhones and Macs in the most recent quarter, Apple did, than they ever have before. Look at these numbers. Three million Mac computers, 10 million iPods. Hey, and that's down a little bit. IPhones, wow, 7.4 million iPhones and now they're going to be selling iPhones in Asia. So they're expecting that could be good for this company. The "Financial Times"...
ROBERTS: Gee, you think?
ROMANS: ... called this a remarkable boom year. I mean, this was an incredible quarter for this company. What recession? I think what it shows is, even as people are stepping back and buying less everywhere else, if there is something they are loyal to and something they love and something that adds value in their life, they're going to pay for it. I mean, the national retail federation I think says that Christmas sales will be down 3% for the year overall, but not if you're somebody like Apple who seems to have found a combination that people want. The question, can they keep going. We say this every quarter. Can they keep going? Well, this quarter, they did. But we have to see what's next for Apple and if they can sustain this kind of momentum. Stock is expected to be up this morning. All stock is expected to be up this morning.
ROBERTS: And they got hit hard too, in the initial phases of the recession, the stock was only $90 back in January.
CHETRY: Only $90 back in January.
ROMANS: And there were concerns about Steve Jobs's health and whether he would be at the helm of his company. But this quarter, this was when he came back and is on the stage again at Mac World. So, all right.
CHETRY: Well, congrats for Apple and their investors.
ROMANS: Can they keep it going?
CHETRY: Thanks, Christine.
ROBERTS: How powerful is talk radio? Everybody's listening. So many -- millions and millions of people are listening and they certainly talk about it, right?
CHETRY: That's right. But if they click the dial and listen all day, does it make a difference when they go in the voting booth?
ROBERTS: We're going to be asking that question. Our carol Costello continues her series on talk radio coming right up. It's 27 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: We're back with the Most News in the Morning. Sometimes they're loud, sometimes they're angry. Talk radio are full of extreme opinions on both sides of the political aisle.
ROBERTS: They talk a big game, but just how much power do these radio hosts really have? Do they influence your vote, for example? Our Carol Costello joins us now from Washington with more on her special series, "talk radio." Carol, not quite an easy question to answer.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is tough, John, I'm telling you. President Obama said this back in January. You can't just listen to rush limbo and get things done. The president was talking as if talk radio wields power over politicians. Does any talk show host have that kind of power, though? As he said, John, the answer is not so simple.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: They certainly get your attention, from the right...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready to go? Come on!
COSTELLO: And the left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More fun than a bag full of squirrels.
COSTELLO: Sure, they're extreme, but politics in America has long been a blood sport. The question is, does that translate to real political power?
We've got Obama, and he's kind of like doing the same damn thing.
COSTELLO: Bob Durgin is a conservative talker at WHP in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Some people believe that conservative talk radio has become too powerful.
BOB DURGIN, WHP TALK RADIO HOST: I don't know how powerful we are, but I guess we are powerful to a degree, but so are all the other media. "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times," are they powerful? You're damn right they are. So why can't we be powerful?
COSTELLO: If you measure power by energizing people already in your corner, then conservative talkers win. Many of their listeners showed up at angry town halls and tea parties, a clear sign, some say, they're feeling a loud, conservative political movement.
CAMILLE PAGLIA, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS: There is a kind of opposition party quality to -- a shadow government quality to listening to conservative radio these days. And I don't see any problem with that in a democracy.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE TALK-RADIO SHOW HOST: It's amazing how many Republicans want to come on this show...
COSTELLO: And no one wields that political club more effectively than Rush Limbaugh. He attracts 15 million listeners a week and brings some Republican leaders to their knees. Influential? Sure. But powerful? Some say even with Limbaugh's vast audience, no.
MICHAEL HARRISON, "TALKERS" MAGAZINE: A listenership is not a vote. And this is a huge mistake that's made by the press and observers of talk radio. That somehow, because 15 million people every week listen to Rush Limbaugh, somehow these are 15 million die- hard conservative voters.
COSTELLO: According to "Talkers" magazine, 56 percent of those who listen to talk radio identify themselves as independent.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: A Rush Limbaugh endorsing a candidate for president or pushing a candidate for president is not sufficient to get that person nominated by republican party.
COSTELLO: Case in point.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: If Huckabee and McCain get the nomination, there's a good chance this party is finished.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Change is coming.
COSTELLO: But McCain did win the GOP nomination in 2008. And despite Limbaugh's anti-Obama talk, Barack Obama became president.
Actually, you could argue liberal talkers have enjoyed the real political power. MICHAEL HARRIS, "TALKERS" MAGAZINE: Do you really think that Al Franken could have gone from being a "Saturday Night Live" ex-comedian and go into the senate and be elected in Minnesota without that stop along the way on talk radio as a host? Not a chance.
COSTELLO So perhaps the real power in talk is simply this. They command your attention. Some politicians have been accused of repeating talk radio talking points. Does that mean voters will think better of those politicians and vote for them?
Michael Harrison of "Talkers" magazine says there is simply no reliable evidence that demonstrates that's true. And take a look at approval ratings for lawmakers. They're not so good -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: It's true, right. In the 20s, still, right?
COSTELLO: Pretty low.
CHETRY: Yeah.
COSTELLO: Pretty dismal.
CHETRY: It is. We know some say, though, it's a very least, talk radio is perhaps driving part of the national dialogue. So is that a bad thing?
COSTELLO: David Gergen, the CNN senior political analyst, says in part, they are driving the national dialogue. And over time, that might be harmful, but we haven't reached that point yet. I'm going to have to mention a bit cliche now, time will tell.
But, you know, we get our information from lots of different media sources. We have to keep in mind, not just radio, but television and newspapers. There are a million sites online. Some are liberal, some are conservative. Americans have many choices and Americans look at many different things. We always have to keep that in mind.
ROBERTS: No shortage of information or opinion out there. Carol, great series. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: We also want to know what you think about it. How powerful is talk radio? Does it influence you? Comment on what you just saw, go to our blog, cnn.com/amfix. Also, tomorrow on our talk radio series, this question -- should conservatives and liberals have the same amount of air time? The fight over fairness on the air, tomorrow, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: We just crossed the bottom of the hour and checking our top stories this Tuesday morning. We're following breaking news for you. Two suicide bombers attacked the campus of a progressive Islamic University in the capital of Pakistan this morning.
Police say at least four people were killed, more than a dozen injured. Terrorist attacks have increased in Pakistan recently as the government targets Taliban militants near the border with Afghanistan.
CHETRY: Afghan President Hamid Karzai bowing to growing international pressure and conceding that he was not the winner of this past summer's presidential election. A runoff has now been scheduled for November 7th between Karzai and his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. Karzai calling the second round a step forward for afghan democracy after a U.N. backed commission branded the past election a fraud.
ROBERTS: Brazil's President is pledging $60 million in aid to Rio de Janeiro following a weekend shoot-out that downed a police helicopter and left at least 21 people dead. The money will be used to provide security. Police are blaming turf wars between rival gangs. Now some are questioning whether Rio has the ability to safely host the Olympics in 2016.
School lunches could be getting a nutritional overhaul. And just like at dinnertime, kids may be pushed to eat their veggies. Dr. Virginia Stallings was in charge of the group that put together the list of recommendations. She's also the director of the nutrition center at the famous Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and she's in our Washington Bureau this morning. Dr. Stallings, good to see you this morning. Thanks for joining us.
DR. VIRGINIA STALLINGS, CHAIRWOMAN OF PEDIATRIC GASTRO-ENTEROLOGY AT THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Good morning, John. Very happy to be here.
ROBERTS: Let's take a look at the recommendations that you're coming up with here, and we will figure out whether or not it's possible for these to be implemented. First of all, more fruit at breakfast, more vegetables at lunch. You also have an indication here that you want to limit starchy vegetables. Also, more whole grains, low fat milk, less sodium.
The goal among high school students is to reduce the sodium intake by 50% over ten years. And no skipping of vegetables. It sounds like a no-brainer and sounds like something that we try to do every day.
STALLINGS: Very good. Well, I think the committee would agree with you. But we do see this is the beginning of a very good start in overhauling the school lunch and breakfast programs. With this, we really will align what we know in nutrition, science, and child health, and make this really large and important program support those two components.
ROBERTS: So, there's a big difference between what students should eat and what they want to eat or what they do eat. So, how do we get them to get on board with this idea of healthy choices?
STALLINGS: You know, it's important part of the whole program now. We've learned that students are pretty sophisticated consumers. So we've got to balance this. The children and the families will all be asked to be a part of really thinking about the menus, even doing taste testing. Those sort of things.
And then we also know that for children of all ages, that being exposed to foods over and over again ultimately will help with the acceptance.
ROBERTS: Now, in addition to -- sorry, go ahead.
STALLINGS: I was just going to say, the last part is we hope that we can combine some of the new foods with some of the other activities in school, so that they can be part of Science class or French class or whatever.
ROBERTS: It would be good. The more awareness you can raise, the better everybody is. You also are suggesting putting caloric limits on school lunches as well as breakfast and grading them on children's age and development. For example, k through 5, you're recommending that lunches be limited to 650 calories. Grades 6-8, 700 calories, 850 calories for high school, and for breakfast, respectively for the same grade levels, 500, 550, and 600 calories.
How far can a school lunch program go in battling the obesity epidemic in this country?
STALLINGS: One of the important things the new recommendations address is that we want to keep enough calories and quality food in the program for children that may not have enough food, who come from families where food resources may be scarce.
On the other hand, one of the things that's changed in the last 20 years is the obesity epidemic in pediatrics. So, we will now have both a minimum and a maximum, so a range. So we'll be able to support the safety net, if you will, and continue to be watchful about not providing too many calories in the school setting.
ROBERTS: Let me come back to one of the recommendations that we highlighted just at the beginning, this idea of lowering sodium. With the target of trying to reduce in the next ten years, the average sodium intake of a high school student by 50%. How important is it to lower sodium intake?
STALLINGS: We know, as a country, we're all taking in more sodium than is probably best for our health. And some people, in particular, are very sodium sensitive. The things like high blood pressure that leads to a lot of other chronic illnesses.
The committee believes that in the school setting, we can make these reductions with the help of the food industry to come up with some products designed specifically for children and to really go back and look at the recipes and the foods that are being offered in the school years. Ten years --
ROBERTS: Ten years, go ahead?
STALLINGS: I was just saying, the ten years was important because this was the one change that everybody understands can't be made that quickly. ROBERTS: Right. When you consider the sources of sodium that we have in our diet every day and how much the sodium there is in things like -- I mean, if you have cereal, a cup of cereal is pretty much 190 milligrams of sodium, then you put milk in, that's another almost 200 milligrams of sodium. So, you've got close to a quarter of your RDA right there just with your breakfast cereal.
What does this do, doctor, to the cost? Because healthy foods are more expensive than unhealthy foods. School lunch programs have always had funding problems. There are school districts across the country who are giving cheese sandwiches to students whose parents can't afford to pay for their lunch, which is both unhealthy and stigmatizing. What are you going to do to effect the costs here?
STALLINGS: We do recognize that it was clear as we went through this process that there would be some incremental cost. As you mentioned, there will be a little bit more cost specifically to provide more fruits and vegetables. And these costs will really be borne by a number of components of the program. There will be a question of whether the federal government will increase the reimbursable fee.
Also, state and local governments might be asked to consider things like adding the necessary refrigerators and freezers. And then we've got to do a lot of training for the school food service people as they make really a monumental change in how we are both providing and monitoring school lunch and breakfast.
ROBERTS: It's amazing how complicated it is to get people to eat healthily. But you would think that over the lifetime of the average student, make healthy changes early on in life, they'll carry you through later in life and they could reduce the overall cost of health care. We'll see how that goes. Dr. Virginia Stallings, great to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for coming by.
STALLINGS: Thanks so much. Bye-bye.
CHETRY: Still ahead, we're talking about the weather. It's gotten quite cold pretty quickly in some parts of the country. So, what's going on. Our Jacqui Jeras breaks it down for us. She is our extreme weather outlook in just a moment. 41 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Forty-two minutes past the hour. Look at Boston, Massachusetts today courtesy of WHDH. Beautiful shot this morning where it is 42 degrees and a bit later, it is going to be partly cloudy, 62 for a high. Our Jacqui Jeras is following extreme weather for us. It feels unseasonably cold in a lot of places, but all the tower camera shots we have today just shown beautiful, almost crystal clear sunshine. How can we complain, right?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. But looks can be deceiving, my friend. Looks great, feels cold, and that's going to be kind of the rule for this morning. All across the East, really, how we've got frost and freeze advisories, which are in place, especially here across the deep South. We're flirting with that freezing mark, even here in Atlanta, at Peachtree City and Rome, both at 33 degrees, while Atlanta proper, get a little bit of that urban heat island effect.
You've been into the 40s. Temperatures are going to be heating up pretty nicely today with 60s and 70s. Looks like we have a little data problem, but no to mid-60s into the Northeast here and low to mid-70s across the Southeast. And we are going to see a gradual warming trend over the next couple of days. So expect improving conditions while wet weather will be the rule across the upper Midwest and across the inner mountain west throughout much of the day for today.
If you're trying to travel, though, the news is good. Overall, looking at minor delays. The Dallas and Denver looking for delays because of the windy conditions. Minneapolis and Salt Lake City due to the low clouds and rain and Seattle looking at some fog and low clouds. So there only like 15 to 30 minutes.
Wanted to give you an update on Rick, which has now been downgraded to a tropical storm. This thing is weakening very significantly. Winds, 65 miles per hour. Best estimate, keeping it off the coast, but we're still watching Cabo for overnight tonight and into early tomorrow morning.
We'll also be interested in the remnants of Rick, which will get caught up in our storm in the midsection today and eventually bring some heavy rain into the Southeast by your Friday -- John and Kran.
CHETRY: Just in time for Friday, great.
JERAS: For the weekend! Yay!
ROBERTS: Not like we didn't have a terrible enough weekend last week, and we're going to have another one again. Let's hope not.
Sanjay Gupta about to hit a milestone. He turns the big 4-0 this Friday. Is he in the best shape of his life? We'll check in with the doc. It's coming up on 45 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is just three days away from the big 4-0. And it seems as though he's been, like...
CHETRY: Turning 40 forever.
ROBERTS: That's because for the past four months, he's been on a quest to get into the best shape of his life.
CHETRY: So how did he do? He's been reporting from all over the world. The poor thing got the swine flu when he was in Afghanistan. And in today's "Fit Nation," we're checking in with Sanjay to see how he's holding up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John and Kiran, greetings from the Twin Cities Marathon.
As you may know, over the last four months, I've been on sort of campaign to get in the best shape of my life by the time I turn 40. Sometimes difficult to do with busy work schedules and everything else that pulls at us. I decided to get a checkup from personal fitness trainer Jillian Michaels to find out how I was doing.
Let's go talk to her.
For the first few days that I did this -- again, I don't count calories, but I was leaving food on the plate. I was definitely taking smaller portions, just really conscious. I was hungry the first few days.
JILLIAN MICHAELS, PERSONAL FITNESS TRAINER: That's so hard.
GUPTA: I was hungry, but I knew once I got beyond that, I had this whole...
MICHAELS: Did you get beyond the physical feeling of hunger? Once that happens, I'll go with volume. So I'll get the salad this big.
Yes, fiber and water, nutrients and low calorie when I struggle with that.
GUPTA: You may have told me this, somebody told me this that thirst is often misperceived as hunger. You think you're hungry, but in fact you're thirsty.
MICHAELS: You're dehydrated.
GUPTA: Yes, you're dehydrated. And I think a lot of people just walk on chronic dehydration. So now I just drink more water.
And it's funny, Jillian, like you, I mean, I've studied this to the core. Fitness, exercise, physiology of all this, but some of the simplest things make the biggest difference, drinking water, pushing a plate away, and exercising when I can.
MICHAELS: How are you doing with sleep? Because sleep really affects my hunger levels.
GUPTA: I won't pass the Jillian test.
MICHAELS: I know because you've got three kids and you're all over the world. How much sleep were you getting, and how are you finding that affects you?
GUPTA: Well, it definitely affects me. And I feel like if I can start to get more sleep, I'm going to be even in a better groove. The thing I'm worried about the most now is that I've had this whole inspiring time over the last four months to do this because 40th birthday. A milestone, an arbitrary milestone at that -- how do I make this a habit?
MICHAELS: You're going to the gym every day after work. Are you finding that manageable? If that's not manageable, then it becomes -- OK, if you can't get the fitness in, then you push the plate away and you eat less calories. You make the quality of your foods count as much as possible. You steal sleep on the plane if that's the only place you can steal it and you've got to make time.
GUPTA: Getting the compliment from you today...
MICHAELS: You, I mean, like -- I was just like, wow, he looks great. Not that I didn't think you looked great before. Let me just clarify. You were hot before and you're hot now. But you just -- yes, you look like you're just lean and mean.
GUPTA: I feel great and I really appreciate it.
MICHAELS: Thank you.
GUPTA: Thanks so much for your help.
So lots of great tips there. Obviously, the key is to maintain this for the rest of my life and hopefully for the rest of yours too. We have lots of great tips for you at CNNhealth.com and also @SanjayGuptacnn on Twitter -- John and Kiran back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: All right. So "Gray's Anatomy's" got McDreamy and McSteamy, so what do we nickname him? McHot Doctor here.
CHETRY: I guess so. Or McFit. But the thing is he did a lot of talking and not a lot of one-handed push-ups so I'm not convinced.
ROBERTS: Well, you know. You know you work with the diaphragm; it's a muscle, right? You have to work all the muscles.
CHETRY: I guess so. We'll have to wait and see.
ROBERTS: Happy early birthday to you, Doc.
CHETRY: Absolutely. All right. We'll be right back.
It's 50 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There are 51 million Latinos living in America, but only six in ten Latino teens graduate from high school.
As part of our "LATINO IN AMERICA" series Soledad O'Brien introduce us to a woman who is single handedly trying to improve those numbers and change lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Omaha, Nebraska: Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch has just addressed a thousand Latino teenagers, urging them to stay in high school and go to college.
Now she's mobbed. The kids are packed three deep, hungering for kind words.
CONSUELO CASTILLO KICKBUSCH, LT. COL., U.S. ARMY (RET.): I love you.
O'BRIEN: Or in Juana Mendoza's case...
KICKBUSCH: You come with me. Come on.
O'BRIEN: A little extra advice.
Latinos are a quarter of the school kids here. Roughly six in ten will graduate from high school, about the same number nationally.
Omaha's a city ripe for Consuelo's message; part inspirational, part biographical.
KICKBUSCH: Although I have shoes today, most of my life, I didn't wear them. I was barefoot.
O'BRIEN: She was born in the barrio to Mexican immigrant parents. Her teachers, she says, couldn't see past her brown skin and thick accent.
KICKBUSCH: They told me my algebra was a cashier machine.
O'BRIEN: Undereducated, she tested poorly. But she found a mentor who helped her prepare for college; after that, a masters degree. Then a successful career in the army where she rose to lieutenant colonel; then, she gave it all up.
Why?
KICKBUSCH: My mom. She said, "I want you to go home, and I want you to go and talk to these kids. They need to believe that education is the answer, not running around the streets."
O'BRIEN: And that's what she's done; crisscrossing the country for 13 years, inspiring young Latinos. On occasion, she takes them with her, literally.
ROY JUAREZ, EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT SERVICES: But if we can take ourself to a level 9...
O'BRIEN: Roy Juarez is now part of her mentoring team.
JUAREZ: I was very wild when we met. It's a going joke in her company that I'm pretty much the only one that's seen her go colonel. O'BRIEN: In May, this young man who used to be homeless graduated from college.
Remember Juana Mendoza? A good student, the oldest of six, she is just dying to go to college.
JUANA MENDOZA, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: She made me think that I can make a difference in somebody -- not just my brothers and sisters, but somebody else that I will meet in 10 years.
KICKBUSCH: Those moments are everywhere in this country now.
O'BRIEN: Everywhere Consuelo goes, she leaves behind young people willing to try a little harder, dream a little bigger, everywhere.
Soledad O'Brien, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: CNN's Soledad O'Brien explores how Latinos are reshaping our communities and culture. "LATINO IN AMERICA" premieres tomorrow as well as Thursday 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
It's 56 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning, Atlanta. Picture perfect day; sunny and 40 right now, it's going to be beautiful this afternoon. A high 70 degrees under the Atlanta sunshine. Look at that.
Continue the conversation on today's stories, go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix.
That will wrap it up for us. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you back here bright and early again tomorrow.
CHETRY: That's right. Thanks for being with us today.
Meanwhile, the news continues. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins.
