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American Morning
Terror Attack Kills 35; Troop Decision Weeks Away; War Strategy in Afghanistan; CIT Files for Bankruptcy; Biden Discusses Relationship with Obama; Tuition Rises Even in Bad Economy; Coach Carter Returns to Richmond after Gang Rape; From Inspiration to Desperation
Aired November 02, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour and time to find out what's happening, fast-forwarding here on AMERICAN MORNING, coming up in the next little while.
The cost of college is rising to new heights, up sharply this fall, universities dealing with the recession and dwindling revenues by passing on the burden to parents and students. The average four- year public college raising tuition by 6.5 percent, private colleges averaging a 4.4 percent hike.
Then it's one on one with cycling champion Lance Armstrong. You're saying to yourself, hey, is that Lance Armstrong in an art gallery? Yes, it is. His competitive days in the bike are far from over. We're going to ask him what keeps him cycling and what he hopes to accomplish before he calls it a career. The art gallery, by the way, he has commissioned about 23, 24 artists to do paintings to raise money and awareness for his cancer research projects.
And then, in just a few minutes' time, the New York, not the USSS - not the USS New York just yet, sails into Lower Manhattan for the very first time. The ship is built with 7.5 tons of steel taken from the World Trade Center, melted down and put in the bow. It's going to stop at the Trade Center, just in the Hudson River there, with a 21- Gun Salute. First responders and families of 9/11 victims will be there to welcome the ship and to return the salute.
As we said, Kiran, it's just The New York right now. The official commissioning ceremony to make it the USS New York is going to take place at Pier 88 there, right beside The Intrepid, and that'll be on November the 7th.
CHETRY: Yes, and it will be really, really interesting to see the group of sailors who have been guiding that warship later this week. They requested that assignment. Some of those enlisted right after the attacks on 9/11. So a lot of history there, and, as we said, some of the steel from the Twin Towers used on the bow. So it will be a great, great, great ceremony.
ROBERTS: Definitely will be.
CHETRY: We'll bring it to you live, by the way, here on CNN and also on cnn.com.
Also, still ahead, Pakistan, a blast and explosion taking place there, several people killed. They were simply waiting in line for paychecks. What implications of that attack and how will it affect Afghanistan?
Right now we just got word that the elections that were scheduled, the runoff, not happening. We're going to hear how the White House reacts to both stories in key allies coming up in just 90 seconds. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning on this Monday, November the 2nd. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Here are the big stories we're going to be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
It was a brazen attack just 18 miles from Pakistan's capital. At least 35 people were killed, dozens more injured after a suicide bomber exploded outside of a bank. In just a moment, we're going to be live in Islamabad.
ROBERTS: CIT, one of the nation's biggest lenders to small businesses, is filing for the fifth largest bankruptcy in US history. The company says it has a plan in place to keep things business as usual, but could this be another big blow to thousands of small business owners across the country? The CNN Money team is tracking the story for you.
CHETRY: Plus, here's a CNN exclusive, one on one with the vice president. He sounds off on Afghanistan, telling us about adjusting to life with a boss. He says he didn't have one all those years when he was a senator. Plus, why he doesn't care what Dick Cheney thinks. And as for the economy, Vice President Biden says there is still a lot of work to do.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So do you think we've hit bottom?
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I - I'm confident we've hit bottom. The question is - look, we're not going to be satisfied, Ed, until we're - I'm able to sit in front of you and say, look, this month we grew jobs. The net affect (ph) is growing jobs.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
CHETRY: Our Ed Henry has an exclusive interview with Vice President Biden, and we will bring that to you, just ahead.
We begin, though, with breaking news. Tragedy in Pakistan, hit with another around of deadly violence, this time in the heavily guarded city of Rawalpindi. It's just 18 miles from the capital. It's home to Pakistan's military. The suicide blast killing at least 35 people outside of a bank, where innocent civilians were simply waiting in line for their monthly paycheck.
Our Reza Sayah is live in Islamabad. Explain more about what happened.
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, investigators are still on the scene at this hour, but most of the activity has moved on to nearby hospitals where doctors are taking care of the injured victims.
Recently, most of the suicide attacks and militant attacks have targeted security officials and soldiers, but here's how ruthless these attacks are becoming. Police tell us that this suicide attacker knew very well that many of his victims were going to be civilians who simply lined up outside of this bank, waiting to get their monthly salary. For this attacker, it didn't matter. He blew himself up anyway.
Police say he was on a motorcycle. He rode up outside this bank, for the first work day of the month, when many government workers were waiting to withdraw their salaries and pensions.
The death toll at this hour stands at 35, 65 people injured. There were, according to witnesses, a lot of soldiers in line. They were the likely targets, according to police, but, again, many civilians among the injured and it's been an incredibly difficult stretch for civilians, just average Pakistanis. Their death rate has been going up at an alarming rate. Of course, it was last week in Peshawar where we saw the deadliest attack in nearly two years, a car bomb there killing more than 100, all of them civilians, Kiran, and at this point, the government hasn't shown the capability of stopping these attacks.
CHETRY: You know, and Reza, we talked a lot about the anti- American sentiment that is so rife in Pakistan. What about anti- Taliban sentiment, given what we've seen, this spade of violence in which so many innocent Pakistanis are being killed at the hands of these militants?
SAYAH: Well, it's interesting, because just as anti-American sentiment is rising, so is anti-Taliban, anti-militant sentiment. A lot of analysts that we spoke to say there were some supporters of the Taliban here in months and years past, but with these types of attacks that are targeting civilians and security personnel, they are losing support and they describe this as a key opportunity for the Pakistani government and security forces to go after these militants and that's exactly what they're doing with this current offensive, targeting the Taliban leadership in South Waziristan. They say 80 percent of these attacks are plotted and orchestrated in South Waziristan and they say they're making progress with that offensive.
But here's the dilemma. Progress in South Waziristan against the Taliban has not translated into peace in these Pakistani cities and that means a lot of frustration of Pakistani civilians, Kiran.
CHETRY: It is just such a tragedy. Reza Sayah for us this morning. Thank you. ROBERTS: These pictures just into CNN, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arriving in the capital of Afghanistan this morning. He met with President Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah. The United Nations says Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is there to show the people of Afghanistan that the United Nations supports the development of their country.
One of President Obama's top advisers says a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan will be made within weeks. David Axelrod telling CBS News yesterday the White House is willing to work with President Karzai, and it appears that they're going to have no choice since Karzai has been handed a second term in office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: I expect the president will make a - a decision within weeks. As you know, he's gone through a very rigorous process, because the goal here is not just to - to make an arithmetic (ph) judgment about the number of troops, but to make sure we have the right strategy to reach our goal, and our goal is to protect the American people from al Qaeda. That's why we're in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda launched on us from Afghanistan. They've been driven to the mountains of Pakistan. We don't want them to return to Afghanistan and make Afghanistan a base again, and that's what this is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And in about five minutes' time, Thomas Cotton and Jake Diliberto will be here. They are two distinguished military veterans with two different viewpoints when it comes to a possible troop surge in Afghanistan. They'll both be lobbying Congress this week for and against the surge, and they're going to join us to debate America's war strategy just ahead.
CHETRY: Well, the USS New York is sailing into port this morning. We're going to take a live look right now. The ship is stopping right beside ground zero in Lower Manhattan and we're awaiting some of the ceremonies, including a 21-gun salute that's set to take place any moment.
ROBERTS: Yes. The ship is just pulling up in the Hudson River. It will pull up parallel to the north cove at the World Financial Center. That's where first responders and families of 9/11 victims are to welcome the ship and return the salute.
The New York contains steel from the World Trade Center, some 7.5 tons of it that was melted down and fashioned into that - a part of the bow that breaks the water, very symbolic. It's in New York, by the way, for its commissioning which will take place on the 7th of November. You can watch live coverage of the ceremonies for the USS New York all morning long, on-air and online at cnn.com/live. It should be getting very close to the 21-gun salute there as well.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll keep dipping back into these pictures as the ceremony unfolds this morning for the USS New York. Also in new this morning, the Ford Motor Company appears to be hitting on all cylinders, the auto maker blowing away Wall Street expectation this morning reporting an operating profit of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter. It's quite a turnaround for Ford which lost $3 billion in the same quarter last year. It's important to remember, though, Ford, one of the US automakers that did not take US bailout money.
ROBERTS: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is warning an economic recovery could take a while. Speaking to NBC News, he says President Obama is committed to fixing the economy, while also keeping the campaign promise about your taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Right now we're focused on getting growth back on track, OK? We're not at the point yet. We have to decide exactly what it's going to take. And I just want to say this very clearly, he was committed in the campaign to make - he said in the campaign and he is committed to make sure we do this in a way that it's not going to add to the burden on people making less than $250,000 a year. Now, it's going to be hard to do that, but he's committed to doing that, and we can do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Secretary Geithner also says while there are signs of life in the economy, we need more growth and more jobs.
CHETRY: Tracking the safety of the swine flu vaccine. Today, independent health advisers are going to be deliberating in private meetings. The group will be hearing data safety from studies of swine flu vaccine in more than 10,000 people. They're also looking for any possible side effects. They're monitoring the process because the vaccine was rolled out quickly this year, even though most say that it is safe, because it was basically manufactured the same way the seasonal flu vaccine is.
ROBERTS: Bay area commuters have another day of headaches ahead of them. The San Francisco Bay Bridge is still closed. Transportation officials say they cannot predict when it's going to reopen. Stress tests performed over the weekend failed. The bridge has been closed since last Tuesday when 5,000 pounds of steel fell into rush hour traffic.
CHETRY: Well, thanks to some clutch hitting by Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees are just one victory away from their 27th World Series title. A-Rod's RBI double snapped a 4-4 tie in the ninth inning last night. It sparked a 7-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, but it's certainly not over yet, because the Bronx Bombers, although they lead the series three games to one, take on Cliff Lee, the pitcher that, boy, really, really took them for a ride in game one. Game five, by the way, is tonight in Philadelphia.
ROBERTS: So President Obama still mulling over whether to send more American troops into Afghanistan, a decision that takes on all the more significance now that President Karzai has been appointed to another term after that runoff election was canceled. But is it the best idea to send more troops in?
We're going to talk with two veterans with very different ideas about that coming right up.
It's now nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: And good morning, New York, where you see the New York, which is the newest amphibious assault ship to be commissioned in the US Navy, making its way up the Hudson River.
It stopped just outside the north cove of the World Financial Center a little while ago, paid tribute in memory of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks with a 21-gun salute. Now making its way up to the George Washington Bridge where it will turn around and then come back and dock next to the Intrepid at Pier 88 in New York, where it will be for the next week, open to the public by the way, and as well it will have its commissioning ceremony on November the 7th, where it will officially be dubbed the USS New York.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. The White House says President Obama expected to make a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan in the coming weeks. His top commander in Afghanistan wants at least 40,000 more soldiers.
Is that the right number? Should we be sending more troops at all? We want to get the views of two Afghanistan war veterans. Thomas Cotton and Jake Diliberto join me now from Washington. They'll both be lobbying Congress this week on opposite sides of the troop surge divide.
Gentlemen, good morning to both of you. Thomas, let's start with you. What's the pitch that you're going to make in favor of General Stanley McChrystal's call for some 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan?
THOMAS COTTON, U.S. ARMY RESERVES: Good morning, John, and thanks for having me on.
I'm going to tell Congress that we need every last one of those troops. That's based not only on my experience over the last year in Afghanistan but also on General McChrystal's reputation and expertise.
He has spent a career in the Army Special Operations community and he's looked at this situation carefully and knows that we can't win with a counterterrorism strategy only. We need a full-spectrum counterinsurgency that can secure the south and the east while mentoring and training the Afghan National Army, and 40,000 troops is the absolute minimum with which he can accomplish that mission.
ROBERTS: Jake, you heard Thomas's argument. What's your argument against the surge in troops in Afghanistan? JAKE DILIBERTO, FOUNDER, VETERANS FOR RETHINKING AFGHANISTAN: Well, Tom's right. I you want to do a counterinsurgency campaign, you absolutely need 40,000 troops. But that's not enough. You're going to need another 100,000 troops on top of that. And all counterinsurgency experts will pretty much agree that another year is going to look like another 15 years.
And so the idea that another counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan is in our best interest as Americans, I don't think is - is the right answer.
ROBERTS: So, Jake, what do you do instead?
DILIBERTO: Well, the idea - the idea or the inclination that somehow we need to be in Afghanistan to keep America safe is not the complete answer. Al Qaeda is 5,000 to 7,000 operative force that is across the world and they're in Germany, they're in the United States, they're in Mexico - they're all over the place. And you need to do the good things to find these criminals and put them in jail, which is - looks like a worldwide, collaborative intelligence effort to find them and root them out. That doesn't...
ROBERTS: So, Jake, do you not buy the argument that Afghanistan is the central front in the war on terror and that, as General Stanley McChrystal says, if US troops were to leave and it were to fall back in the hands of the Taliban, that it could provide safe haven for al Qaeda again?
DILIBERTO: Well, even - even if you could prevent the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan, you could not guarantee that al Qaeda would not be able to go back there. So to - to think that that is a one-size answer to say we need to be in Afghanistan is - is not complete. We have fallen in love with a military solution in Afghanistan and that is not the answer.
ROBERTS: Well, Thomas...
DILIBERTO: What - what's taking place...
ROBERTS: Let me - let me go to Thomas on that. What do you think about that argument that Jake just made, that we've fallen in love with the idea of a - of a military solution in Afghanistan? And then on the idea of more troops going in, as you know, US diplomat Matthew Hoh recently resigned his post, saying we're doing this all wrong. We're - we're creating more of a problem by having American forces there than we would if they weren't there at all.
COTTON: I agree that military solution alone is not the answer. You know, General McChrystal recognizes that as does President Obama. However, first and foremost, you must have security for - you know, and hoping to have improvements in the government or economic development.
And I know, he actually came to my base last year or earlier this year and we visited some time, and he may not have received the clearest guidance from the civilian side, but on the military side, we certainly received crystal-clear guidance from General McChrystal bound for the frontline troopers that you really have to provide security for the people to allow them to be able to develop the economy and to develop a strong and more efficient government. The same way we saw in Iraq with the surge in 2007 and '08.
ROBERTS: And Jake, what do you say to that argument, that one of the problems that the Afghan people have is that they believe that the U.S. isn't keeping its promises. They promised to go in there and provide safety and security and they don't have it. So the way to get safety and security, to win over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people is to send more troops in there so that you can more effectively police the area.
JAKE: Well, our history is short in this country. I think that we need to recognize that the Afghanistan people have been bombed for almost 100 years going back to the British at the turn of the 20th century. And this continued violence that's taking place has caused the Afghanistan culture to be very resilient and also resistant to any sort of foreign powers. So to think that another 40,000 troops or counterinsurgency campaign can be successful really misses the point, on this war. The -- what's taking place is a cultural misunderstanding and a war on poverty. The real war that's taking place in Afghanistan is poverty. And more troops destabilizes the area even more. And this overlooks, if you send more troops to Afghanistan, you actually have the unintended effect of destabilizing Pakistan, which is a nuclear-armed, highly volatile region that needs to be a close watch of intelligence and special operations for terrorist activity, not a counterinsurgency campaign.
ROBERTS: Two very different viewpoints from two veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. Gentleman, thanks so much for being with us. We'll continue to follow you this week as you make your ways through the halls of congress there to make your cases. Really appreciate your coming in. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, John, thanks so much. Well, still ahead, as we know, college costs are on the rise. It costs somewhere around $25,000-$30,000 dollars per year for kids to go to even state schools. How do kids afford it? How do families afford it? Well, we have some advice from Ben Kaplan. He's the publisher of cityofcollegedreams.org. He has some very good advice, some first- hand advice of being able to pay for college. At 18 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Elton John is probably singing the blues. The singer-songwriter postponing several concerts with Billy Joel. Reports say that he has checked himself into a London hospital because of a severe case of the flu and an E. coli bacterial infection. Two shows in Seattle and one in Portland, Oregon, will likely be rescheduled.
CHETRY: Well, Michael Jackson's "This Is It" was the king of the box office over the holiday weekend. The film pulled in more than $100 million in its first five days and it was only supposed to run for two weeks, but now Sony pictures says they'll keep it in theaters until at least thanksgiving.
ROBERTS: And after trick or treating, kids love to compare their loot, but only a select few got candy from the White House. First lady Michelle Obama was dressed up like a cat, wearing furry ears and a leopard pattern top for Halloween. The president himself opted out of dressing up. You don't want those pictures floating around the internet for the next 20 years. The first couple passed out specially made M&Ms and a cookie made by the White House pastry chef. Now, remember how I was saying last week, when I was a kid, we got gingerbread cookies from the house across the street and everybody looked forward to it and that was back in the day where you could get baked goods and be reasonably assured that it would be safe. One of the only places in America -- the White House, where you could get a cookie that you could be pretty much guaranteed would be safe.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Last week I lambasted my mother for throwing our candy away. When I did - No, I threw my kids' candy away. I turned into my mother.
CHETRY: No, you didn't say, you didn't say that your mother was throwing it away. You said that she divided it up equally, even though you older kids collected more. Did you do that too?.
ROBERTS: You didn't like living in an egalitarian Marxist society.
ROMANS: I was egalitarian this time. I just threw it all away. Everybody got a little sucker. They're little kids, they don't eat all that candy.
CHETRY: Our kids are actually the same age, and mine are just keep opening up that cabinet, digging their little hands in.
ROBERTS: So, how was it growing up with Marxism at Halloween?
ROMANS: I know, she argues with me. We don't remember the way it really was.
CHETRY: That's what my mom says too. Well, all right. Well, Christine's "minding your business" this morning. And we've been talking about this -- the fifth largest bankruptcy taking place and the affect it could have on small and medium-sized businesses that really depend on these loans.
ROMANS: This has been a real drama for CIT for some months now. We have been talking about it. It's been playing out in public here and this company has now filed for bankruptcy over the weekend. And what does this company do? You touch and feel this company every day, no matter who you are, because when you walk into a big retailer, many of the things on the shelves there, they are companies that have used CIT to help get capital and cash events, there's this thing called vendor financing and factory to make sure the goods are there and ready for you to buy.
There are 1 million customers, it's the biggest small business lender. It operates in 30 different industries, but it's very big in retail, as I said, it's the top lender to women and minorities. It's the top lessor of rail cars and aircraft. Big business there for this company. CIT, in fact, has 2,000 vendors that it's responsible for making sure there's financing for that supply up to 300,000 stores. So, frankly, whether you are talking about a Dunkin Donuts, whether you are talking about a new furniture company, whether you are talking about any number of the importers or manufacturers or retailers out there, there is some kind of connection to CIT. In fact, 60 percent of the apparel industry relies on CIT to fund its business.
And, quite frankly, there's a little bit of concern this morning about what this is going to mean for the holiday shopping season as many of these companies try to make sure that their products get on the retailer shelves. This is a pre-packaged bankruptcy. And what they're hoping is that the credit, the money, and the capital will keep flowing throughout this whole thing, but again it's the fifth largest bankruptcy in American history. Four of the top five have happened in the last year.
ROBERTS: You got a "Roman's Numeral" for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do. It's 90 million and it's people, 90 million people.
CHETRY: Are employed by small businesses?
ROMANS: Ninety million people are employed by businesses that use CIT.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROBERTS: Really. Wow.
ROMANS: Ninety million. And this is according to CIT itself. Its CEO, Jeffrey Peak, trying, I think, to let everyone know just how important and ubiquitous this company is. Even if you have not heard of it off the top of your own head, it is something that many, many people this morning I'm sure are watching who are mid-sized managers and who are small business owners who are saying, wow, what is this going to mean for me? The company says that it's going to keep all this business as usual in this bankruptcy process.
ROBERTS: A lot of concerns out there,
CHETRY: Are they going to try to get more money from the fed?
ROMANS: I don't think they're going to get it. I mean, they've already got $2.3 billion of our money. And they have asked for - in months past, they tried to go, I think, to the treasury department has decided that the economy is strong enough on its own to let the market take care of this.
ROBERTS: All right. Christine Romans for us this morning "Minding Your Business." Thanks very much.
We're starting a new series this week. It's called "The Presidential Brain Trust," the people that are around the president, the ones who advise him, work with him on a day-to-day basis. Today in an exclusive interview, we talk with Vice President Joe Biden with what it's like to go from senior senator to vice president. Ed Henry talks to the vice president, coming up. It's 25 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. So, what's it like being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office and what's the relationship really like between President Obama and Vice President Biden? The two were rivals on the campaign trail, and it's fair to say that the vice president has no trouble speaking his mind.
CHETRY: That's right. And this morning, in a CNN exclusive, we're taking you inside the west wing for insight that you really can't get anywhere else. Our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, is live at the White House for the first of our series, the presidential brain trust. You had a chance to sit down one on one with vice president Joe Biden. Tell us about it, Ed.
HENRY: Well, you know, Kiran, it was interesting, he was really candid about the fact that this was an adjustment. Going from a senior senator, as John said, to now number two. And to think about it, one year ago this week, the Obama/Biden ticket was victorious. But they didn't really know each other that well. They were former rivals, they were from different generations, they didn't campaign on the road together that much, they were separated a lot, so they didn't really become friends or anything like that. And there were some early stumbles because of some Biden gaffes. But I can tell you some top White House aides now tell me that that vice president has grown into one of the president's most influential advisers on everything from the economy to the war in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: How are you, sir? It's been a long time.
(voice-over): After nine months as vice president, Joe Biden still has the DNA of a back-slapping senator. Getting in your face and jabbing a finger in your chest to make his points.
BIDEN: The one adjustment that I needed to make, Ed, I've been my own man for 36 years as a United States senator. I've never had a boss.
HENRY: Now he does. And Biden confesses, sometimes it's difficult to remember he's no longer a free agent. Like when Biden called an aide with the news that Delaware's governor had decided on a replacement for his old Senate seat.
BIDEN: He said, yes, did you call the president? I said, why in the hell should I call the president? Literally, my instincts, I said, why -- it's my state, why should I call the president?
HENRY: The aide explains he should not blindside the president, which happened too often in the early days, such as an awkward joke about Chief Justice John Roberts.
BIDEN: My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts.
(LAUGHTER)
HENRY: The president publicly corrected his number two and later poked fun about the gaffes after getting a new dog.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You just have to keep him on a tight leash, every once in a while, he goes charging off in the wrong direction and gets himself into trouble. Enough about Joe Biden.
(LAUGHTER)
HENRY: But top White House aides tell CNN, Biden spends a minimum of two hours with the president each day, sometimes up to five hours.
BIDEN: I'm not trying to set up a separate center of power over here. It works best when there's a single center of power.
HENRY: He says that's a sharp break from Dick Cheney's approach and has no patience for his predecessor's charge that Mr. Obama is dithering over his Afghanistan decision.
BIDEN: I like Dick Cheney personally, but I really don't care what Dick Cheney thinks. And I'm not sure a lot of Americans do. Look at the policy they left us. Look at the policy of neglect they left us in Afghanistan.
HENRY: He's also consciously trying to catch himself before he slips up, even on a minor point about the Taliban.
BIDEN: Look, everything's changed, Ed -- not everything. Let me be precise. There's been a significant change in the last four months.
HENRY: While Biden insists the president never told him to tone it down, he's proud of his ability to dial it back on his own.
HENRY (on camera): "Saturday Night Live" has had a little fun with you about gaffes. Has the president ever had to say...
BIDEN: Fortunately, not lately. I'm sort of in a gaffe-free zone right now, you know?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Now, top White House officials tell me that while Biden's instinct of speaking bluntly in public can get him in trouble, ironically that same quality can give him more influence behind closed doors because the president believes he's getting the unvarnished truth from his number two -- John, Kiran?
ROBERTS: Ed Henry for us at the White House. Ed, thanks so much. That's a fascinating piece.
You can get read more about Ed's sit down with the vice president. Just head to our show blog. The address is CNN.com/amfix.
And tomorrow our special series continues. He's the face of the president's message, taking questions from reporters each and every day. In another CNN exclusive, our Dan Lothian talks with White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the type of relationship we have is -- it's -- I think we think of each other not just as somebody that -- not just somebody I work for, but a friend of mine, somebody who is likely to, on any given day, ask about my son as much as he is to talk about a policy issue.
So I think the relationship you also have to have with that person, because speaking for somebody is -- can be a difficult thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That's part two of our special series, "The President's Brain Trust" tomorrow right here on the most news in the morning.
Checking our top stories this morning, the United Nations pulling some workers from Pakistan's northwest region after a suicide attack outside of a bank. At least 35 people were killed. Most were standing in line waiting for their monthly paycheck.
The attack happened in Rawalpindi. It's about 18 miles south of the capital of Islamabad.
Disturbing new evidence North Korea was behind the massive cyber attacks against the U.S. government. The head of South Korea's main spy agency says the July attacks were tracked back to circuits that Pyongyang was leasing from China.
Computers at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department were all sabotaged in that attack.
And the New York, soon to be USS New York, is sailing into port this morning. The ship is built with steal from the World Trade Center. It stopped by ground zero on its way up the Hudson River this morning and gave a 21-gun salute.
It will be docked beside the Intrepid for the next week and the official commissioning ceremonies take place on November the 7th. That's when it becomes the USS New York - Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
It's 33 minutes past the hour. The recent economic slump has pushed down prices in almost every sector, except one, perhaps, higher education. And families are certainly feeling it. Tuition and fees at private four-year schools rose 4.5 percent this year to $26,000 per year while tuition at public universities rose 6 percent, topping $7,000 a year if you live in state and $18,000 a year if you live out of state.
So why the cost of an education still going up and what can families do to make college more affordable?
Joining me now is Ben Kaplan. He's the publisher of cityofcollegedreams.org. Ben, thanks for joining us this morning. I know you look over this, review a lot of the things that the College Board talks about.
In this report, they basically say that college costs have gone up. What do you make of that?
BEN KAPLAN, PUBLISHER, CITYOFCOLLEGEDREAMS.COM: Good morning, Kiran. It's interesting, because on the public school side, essentially state funding for higher education has really dwindled. So the result, higher tuition on the public side.
On the private side, because of the performance of the stock market, their endowments are down, so that puts more pressure on the price.
And also it is a record number of students right now attending college. That's due to demographics and a lot of people who are out of work going back to school. So the result is this kind of perfect storm to have about 5 percent increase in tuition.
And the one silver lining in all this is it's not 8 percent. It's not 9 percent. Those are statistics we saw just a few years ago. So it is an increase, but there are some things you can do.
And the other interesting fact with all of this is the impact on financial aid. About nine out of ten schools right now are reporting an increase in financial aid applications.
CHETRY: Yes. The Department of Ed saying 9 million students applied for financial aid this year alone.
But there's a reason why when you look at these numbers. According to the "Chronicle of Higher Education," 58 colleges and universities are charging more than $50,000 a year, and that includes room and board. Schools like NYU, Columbia, Vanderbilt.
That number is jaw-dropping for the average family. They want their kids to be able to get a great education, but how the heck can most people afford this?
KAPLAN: Right. Some parents right now, just reach for the Pepto-Bismol at home, wondering how are we going to do this?
First of all, don't get too scared, because there is something called the net out of pocket cost, which is -- so the average private school costs about $26,000, but because of financial aid from the school, because of tax credits, tax benefits from the government, there's actually $14,000 of that the average family isn't paying.
So the average private school comes from $26,000 for tuition and fees a year down to about $12,000. A public school goes from about $7,000 down to about $1,600. So that's still a lot of money, that's still expensive, but it's better than just the raw sticker price.
And that's why, right now, what I think the big take away from this is that you need to take action right now. The financial aid season starts on January 1st. It takes some prep time.
So in my mind, November, December is the time to do that financial aid prep work. We're telling everyone at my Web site, cityofcollegedreams.org, to do that now, because when you're at the front of the financial aid line, colleges have a lot more flexibility to give you more money.
And also here's the other surprising thing. More and more families are savvy enough now to appeal their initial financial aid award. So if you're at the front of the financial aid line, you appeal, you have a better chance to get a revised financial aid package with more money, more grant money, and less loans.
CHETRY: OK. So it is a lot to digest. And I know why kids out there -- and I still remember one of the most stressful times of my life was trying to apply to colleges. First of all, forget about even hoping to get into these schools, but then figuring out how the heck your family is going to pay for it.
You, however, we all know, are legendary when it comes to this. You basically signed up and applied for financial aid and scholarships -- you won two dozen different college scholarships totaling $90,000, and you ended up almost being able to cover your entire cost of going to Harvard.
So what are some of your tricks? I know you said start early. But for high school kids and for families out there listening and for parents out there listening, what are some tricks that they need to keep in mind, some things that they need to do now that give them a leg up?
KAPLAN: Sure. Well, a couple big ones -- and thank you for mentioning that, by the way. My parents are still dancing around the house from all the scholarships.
But in terms of what you can do -- one, realize that when you apply to college your goal is not just to get admitted, but to get admitted as a special student that the college wants to have on campus, because there's something called "preferential packaging." The students the college really wants to have, they get a higher ratio of grants to loans, that's number one.
Number two -- about $6 billion to $8 billion in private scholarships awarded every year from corporations, foundations, associations, community groups.
And I realized that, hey, you don't have to have just an amazing GPA or amazing test scores or have the community service record of Mother Teresa to get these scholarships. There's all sorts of awards out there. There are some free Internet scholarship databases to use. You can link to all of them at my Web site, cityofcollegedreams.org.
And the key is to get started now. And it can be a great partnership between parents and students. For my family, there was a lot of camaraderie. We were working together towards a common goal, and that even brought us closer together as a family.
CHETRY: And that's great. And the advice is you're not just trying to get one aid passage, you're not just trying to get one loan, that you can pick and choose and put them all together in a bigger pot because there's a lot out there. The small one adds up.
Maybe one just covers your books, but at least you're moving toward chipping away at that big, big total.
KAPLAN: Sure.
And the one thing to keep in mind, too, is never rule out a college solely because of the sticker price. Because of financial aid packages, some of the most expensive schools they have some of the most generous packages too.
So don't just look at -- don't be like, when you go to a restaurant and you avoid that really expensive lobster dinner. It's not just the sticker price. Financial aid brings down that sticker price, so find the school that's the best personal fit.
And be thankful that in the U.S., what's really unique is that we have 7,000 different schools. No other country in the world has those kinds of options.
CHETRY: No, a lot of options out there. You just have to know where to look and you have to be vigilant about it.
Ben Kaplan, thanks so much. And we want to let people know that also our blog, CNN.com/amfix, you can read about some more of Ben's tips.
Thanks so much - John.
KAPLAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Samuel L. Jackson played him in the movie. The really Coach Carter goes back to Richmond High School in the wake of that terrible gang rape. And our Dan Simon catches up with the coach to find out what he's thinking about and what he thinks needs to be done.
It's 40 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: When a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped nine days ago, Richmond High School in California went from a source of inspiration to a symbol of desperation. So former basketball coach Ken Carter decided it was time to come back for a visit.
CHETRY: You may remember Coach Carter. He's a legend at Richmond. Hollywood even made a movie about him. CNN's Dan Simon caught up with Carter during his emotional return home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's the coach who made Richmond High School a symbol of positive change. And he's crushed to see it now linked to an unspeakable crime.
KEN CARTER, FORMER RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH: It's a little surreal and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, honest, because I love this school and I love this city.
SIMON: Coach Carter is a celebrity here and he wants to use his fame to help the school heal.
SIMON (on camera): What aspect of the case to you was the most mind boggling?
CARTER: Just like everybody else, when you have X number of people witnessing this and no one called 911 when it's so easy to do.
SIMON (voice-over): A few years ago, Ken Carter became the inspiration for a hit movie starring Samuel L. Jackson.
CARTER: I don't think you're supposed to touch students.
CARTER: I'm not a teacher. I'm the new basketball coach.
SIMON: The film chronicled Carter's 1999 season as basketball coach. He forfeited games and locked his players out of the gym because of poor academic performance.
The kids got the message, grades went up, and the team became a powerhouse. Carter says this is what he told his players on the first day.
CARTER: I said, sit in the very front row of every single class, say yes, sir, yes, ma'am to all your teachers, to be extremely gentleman to the young ladies on campus, because that's what we did. That was our standard.
SIMON: Carter left Richmond in 2002. He's now working to open his own private school in Texas. But the homecoming rape has brought him home to Richmond with a different kind of message.
CARTER: I don't know if each one of those males had sisters, but I know each one of them had a mom, they had a mother. Now, you look at the situation, would they like that to happen to someone in their family? I'm sure they wouldn't.
SIMON: During a school forum, some seemed to blame the incident on the lack of cameras and security.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do some schools get everything? Why do some schools have new camera systems? How many schools in our district have a fence?
SIMON: Carter says their anger, while understandable, is misplaced.
CARTER: You can have as many cameras around here as possible, but to stop anything in this community, you're going to need the community. When the community says, I'm tired of this, then a change will be made.
SIMON: For now, Carter is trying to put together a charity basketball game. Hopefully, he says, with Samuel L. Jackson and other actors from the movie. All the money would go to the victim and her family.
CARTER: I don't know what the family's financial situation is, but when something like this happens, I'm sure the parents are not able to work and things of that nature.
SIMON: It's a first step in a long healing process for the 15- year-old girl and the High School Carter helped put on the map.
Dan Simon, CNN, Richmond, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Amazing to see Coach Carter back there, isn't it?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: It's a shame it took that to get him back there, though.
CHETRY: Yes, that's true.
ROBERTS: Yes.
So Lance Armstrong was back in town again. He has commissioned works of art from some 24, almost 25 renowned artists. It's all designed to bring awareness to his Lance Armstrong Foundation's work in Cancer Research and Treatment and hopes to make a lot of money through selling these works of art. They're touring around the world.
We also talked to him about when he's going to get back on the bike and what about the Tour De France next year? You'll hear from Lance coming right up.
It's 46 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A shot of Atlanta, Georgia, this morning where it's partly cloudy, its 49 degrees. A little bit later, it's going to be partly cloudy, going up to 67.
Our Rob Marciano joins us this morning. Besides watching the Yankees and the World Series, you're also forecasting the weather for us tonight. Could the game get some rain?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, I think it's just going to spit a little bit this morning, that should be about it. The World Series over the weekend, a couple of classic NFL match-ups, Talladega; we'll talk more about that in a second.
Certainly it was a good weekend plus Halloween, and you got an extra hour of sleep. I mean, how perfect is that?
A little bit of rain, this is just spitting right here, a spit or two from Philly to New York. This should all be gone I think in the next couple of hours and kind of move out to sea. If you live in Chicago, also looking at a little bit of rainfall here, but this isn't too horrible a scene.
No real big storms. We've got a lot of zonal flow. I mean, everything kind of moving quickly from west to east. And look at this radar shot. It's not showing a whole lot of action. So we don't expect to see much in the way of rainfall or storminess today. And that is highlighted here on the old Nashville map which has some sunshine.
It was sunny in Talladega yesterday. I don't know if you watch it. Look at this crash from Brian Newman. This is the second race this year we've let airborne. Last spring, it was Carl Edwards in Talladega and boy that was just nasty, it flipped over and landed on his head and the roll cage actually crashed down on his helmet just a little bit.
So he walked out of it ok, but certainly was shaken in the post- race interview. Talladega is known for these railroad cars, just kind of rolling around for 200 laps and then typically the last few laps, they get a little bit more aggressive and that's the result.
Unbelievable stuff there, dangerous business, but the cars, at least, have gotten a lot safer when they stay on the ground.
John and Kiran, back up to you. I know you're big Nascar fans up there, so I'm not sure...
ROBERTS: Absolutely. And that'll definitely give you a headache. No question about that.
Rob, thanks so much for that.
MARCIANO: All right, see you guys.
ROBERTS: Lance Armstrong coming right up. He talks racing, doping allegations. Why the French are still after him and his predictions for the Tour de France 2010. How he thinks he'll do.
Stay tuned. Ten minutes now to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fifty-two minutes past the hour.
Lance Armstrong certainly knows what it takes to overcome the odds. First he beat cancer. He went on to win the Tour De France a record seven times.
ROBERTS: But his competitive days on the bike are far from over. I had a chance to speak to him about that. We got together at a New York Gallery where works of art he commissioned to raise money and awareness for his cancer research projects are on display.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LANCE ARMSTRONG, SEVEN-TIME TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER: You know, I think we did a good job of telling the story. All along the way we, I mean, for lack of a better word, the language involved there was important and people understood that every stop that we made, if it was Australia, if it was in the United States, if it was Europe, if it was the summit that we had in Ireland at the end of the year, we not only went there to race our bike. I didn't go to win the race, but I also went to fight this disease.
And so that's a different life than all my competitors have.
ROBERTS: And you're going to do it again next year?
ARMSTRON: I'm going to do it again next year. I ended up having a good time.
ROBERTS: Well, you keep third. You've been away for three years and you came back and you were third. Come on.
ARMSTRON: Well, you know, I don't -- and honestly, John, I think I expected to win, I think, before the race, I mean, I even said out loud, I said, I expect to win. I knew I had won before. I sort of knew...
ROBERTS: Well, if you don't go in expecting to win, you never will.
ARMSTRONG: Right, but cycling is more predictable than that. And Alberto was a great rider and super strong.
At the end of the three weeks, I just sort of said to myself, I made some mistakes in the race tactically, but there was no way I was going to win. He was far superior as an athlete.
And so I was happy with that and it was been an interesting experience, getting third and being very content with that.
ROBERTS: How does it feel at the age of 38 to be -- I mean, you're one of the oldest, if not the oldest guys in there and you're flying proud.
ARMSTRONG: I'm not the oldest. Yes.
To be honest, the age wasn't a factor. The time away, four years out of the -- from '04 to '09, the time away from the sport was the biggest factor in my performance this year.
ROBERTS: It's kind of ironic that here you were, out riding the Tour de France to try to bring attention to the fight against cancer, the foundation and all of that, and you're still being dogged by the French anti-doping agency, at every turn, they're coming after you.
ARMSTRONG: Honestly, I think that really turned the corner this year. If you consider that I was away from the sport for four years, I'm 38 years old, I came third in the Tour de France. I had 50 out- of-competition tests. I had more controls in the tour than anybody else, save for Alberto.
ROBERTS: I mean, they were taking your blood, they were taking your urine, they were cutting your hair.
ARMSTRONG: Exactly. They took everything. But that's my argument and that's that answer. And for the most part, that buzz has gone away.
Now, there's still a few agencies over there that insist to come after cycling. I mean, if you look at the reports that came out a couple weeks ago.
ROBERTS: But why won't they leave you alone?
ARMSTRONG: I don't think it's -- this latest stuff was not an issue of me. This was an issue of the way that our governing body, the UCI, handled the testing at the tour.
And they have two different perspectives. I think that that relationship, especially specifically with the French, I think it's been healed in a lot of ways. I had lunch with President Sarkozy the other day and you couldn't find a bigger cycling fan, a bigger fan of myself. We're in a good place.
ROBERTS: I know American cycling fans are excited you're going to be riding in the Tour of California. Can you bring this sort of attention to American cycling, to bring it on the level with the way cycling is respected and revered in Europe?
ARMSTRONG: It's going to be -- it will take time. If you look at the tour events of the big races in Europe, they're 100 years old, 105 years old. We're talking about three-year-old events, four-year- old events, new events. You know, the -- we lack the tradition that Europe has.
ROBERTS: So if I asked you for a prediction for how you'll do at the tour next year, you would say?
ARMSTRONG: Better than this year. ROBERTS: Well, that's either second or first. Which do you want to be?
ARMSTRONG: I would like to win. But I will say that with both feet firmly on the ground, Alberto's a good rider. I'll be better than I was in 2009, but he's dang good and it won't be easy to beat him. But I want to win, if that means anything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: He's talking about Alberto Contador, who won the race last year. And Lance even allowed, he said Alberto Contador was a better rider than Lance ever was, even during the time that he won those seven tours.
CHETRY: Very, very interesting. Because you said that it's much more specific than that when he said, I can. You either you can or you can't.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: A lot of it is strategy though. A lot of it too is building expectations. Saying things like Alberto Contador is better rider than I ever was, that's part of the psychology too.
CHETRY: Well, it's a great thing you had a chance to sit down and talk to him.
ROBERTS: It was just great. We spent some time.
CHETRY: And meantime, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, much more of AMERICAN MORNING.
Fifty-seven minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: An image at the top of the hour, live picture here of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, where final inspections are under way. CalTran hopes to get though open later today, but it failed stress tests over the weekend, so I don't know what they've done differently to it that it might pass inspections now, but they said they're hoping it will be opened up later today.
CHETRY: There you go. All right, well, good luck. I know hundreds of thousands of commuters rely on it and need it and want it to open, but of course, want it to be safe as well.
ROBERTS: Yes, it's got some serious problems. No question about that.
CHETRY: Thanks for being with us this morning. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.
Meanwhile, you can continue the conversation on any of today's stories by heading to our show blog, cnn.com/amfix. ROBERTS: And the news continues on CNN with Heidi Collins in the "CNN NEWSROOM." Hi, Heidi.
