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American Morning

Bright Spots in Troubled Times on Black Friday; Global Warming Debate Heats Up; raise questions; Danger in the Runaways at Newark International Airport

Aired November 27, 2009 - 07:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Christine Romans in for Kiran Chetry on this day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 27th.

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: Perky, aren't we?

And I'm Joe Johns in for John Roberts. A very exciting day, and we're watching the malls of course. Here are the stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes or so.

The annual stampedes have begun. Crowds are surging into stores in search of deep discounts. It may be called Black Friday, but today retailers are actually hoping to see some green, if you know what I'm talking about.

And this morning, we're live and hitting the stores early.

ROMANS: Our elected officials in Washington flying some very friendly skies these days while most of us get hit with one infuriating fee after another at the airport? Members of Congress are getting freebies and perks from the airline industry.

Oh, by the way, the airline industry is an industry they also happen to regulate. And guess what, it's all perfectly legal.

JOHNS: And new controversy over climate change. Computer hackers target some of the world's top researchers. And this morning we've got details of what leaked emails reveal.

ROMANS: But first, the Black Friday bargain hunting has begun. And for many it began in the dead of the night with door busters and early bird specials.

Retailers are desperately trying to get consumers to pry open their wallets in this recession and forget that Black Friday means they're trying to get in the black, not the retailers.

Our Adriana Hauser is live at the Macy's here in New York City. Adriana, what's the scene like?

ADRIANA HAUSER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. The crowds are definitely picking up. The doors opened at 5:00 a.m. and at that moment, before the doors opened, there were about 300 people that we could see in the entrances that we could see. But as the morning progressed, there's more and more people. The store is a very large store, so you can definitely see some space in between people. But it's getting more and more crowded. People are determined to shop.

The best deals happen in the first part of the day and end around 1:00. And then after that, the deals will become more of a typical holiday season specials.

Christine, this is an important black Friday because we are seeing mixed economic indicators. The National Retail Federation expected that this year there will be 16 percent more shoppers hitting the store, but they still expect a one percent decline in the total of sales for the season -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Adriana Hauser, thanks so much.

JOHNS: While retailers in the red hoping to put their books in the black, on Wall Street it's shaping up to be a red arrow day. Markets overseas have been heading south all morning, the drop fueled in part by the debt crisis in Dubai.

Our Stephanie Elam here joins us now giving us the latest. So what is the latest?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's really a debt crisis of one entity that we're looking at right now. Just to freeze and give you some idea here. But it was enough to tank the Asian markets while we were all out busy enjoying turkey and sweet potato pie. That's what I was baking yesterday was sweet potato pie.

So while we think about this, the rest of the markets across the globe were open. And look at what happened here. You look at Japan's Nikkei lost more than three percent. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong off nearly five percent, same difference with the Kopsy in South Korea really taking it on the chin.

I have to tell you that right now the FTSE in London is off, but just fractionally. So it seems to tapering as it comes this way to the United States, but the futures here are still off 200 points. So we'll be keeping our eyes on it.

We do have a truncated trading session here today. But here's the issue, this company Dubai World, which is basically the financial arm of Dubai. It's state-owned here. They've requested to just not pay anything on their debt for six months, and they have a debt of about $60 billion.

So imagine if you had a mortgage on your house, and you were like, for six months I'm just not going to pay you. How is that working for you? That will cause a problem for a lot of banks, right?

This issue just spread around -- people were very concerned about what this meant for investors. They're looking for safe havens, so they went to places like the yen, the U.S. dollar totally getting hit by that, going to a 14-year low against the yen. And this is the reason why we care about this.

When we look at a story like this the reason we care is because of exposure banks in the United States may have. Right now we don't have a lot of information on that. We'll be looking at that.

But it's compounded because we have the Eid holiday in the Middle East, so there are a lot of people who are not in the office. And then you had Thanksgiving here in the United States.

We were taking a look at some of the comments out from Dubai world, and they called it, quote, "A sensible business decision." This was in published reports we're seeing this. And we can expect more information early next week.

It's also believed that probably Saudi Arabia, other countries will come in and back them. There's a lot of money in the Middle East. No one is saying they're going bankrupt. It's all about how are they going to handle these debt payments here.

But the panic button pushed around there, but it looks like it may kind of calm down by the time it gets here. Not as bad as it looked overseas.

ROMANS: We're rattled by debt concerns in Dubai and we just have to wait to see -- it's uncertain what the spillover will be for American banks and American markets.

ELAM: Exactly.

ROMANS: All right, thanks, Stephanie.

ELAM: Sure.

ROMANS: All right, we're beginning to find out more about the couple from Virginia that crashed a White House state dinner Tuesday night. When they're not slipping past security to rub elbows with Washington's elite, they happen to be spending a lot of time in court.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi named in at least 16 lawsuits, some as defendants, some as plaintiffs. They filed for Chapter seven bankruptcy in February. A spokesman for the couple says they'll be taking their story public on a media junket next week.

JOHNS: And in the hours leading up to that state dinner they crashed, the Salahis were being followed around Washington by a reality TV crew.

ROMANS: No!

JOHNS: You got it. The Bravo network confirming Michaele Salahi is being considered for a role in the upcoming "Real Housewives of D.C." show. A spokesman for Bravo says the couple informed the show's producers that they were invited guests at the White House and that there was no reason not to believe them. So somebody got tricked there.

ROMANS: I'd say so.

JOHNS: That's what it sounds like.

ROMANS: If you're holiday travel plans have you flying this Thanksgiving, you've done the accounting and you experienced the pain, especially if you're trying to carry a little baby gear and all that stuff.

JOHNS: All right, $30 a day to park at the airport, and then there's more, those infuriating fees just for making a reservation, more charges for checking bags. It's all going to add up, of course, unless you happen to be a member of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: This holiday season, as you sit packed into economy class paying those extra fees, enduring canceled flights, getting bumped from your seat, consider this -- the people you sent to Washington who regulate the airlines are receiving travel perks from the industry. And it's perfectly legal.

Kate Hanni is with a consumer advocacy group.

KATE HANNI, FLYERSRIGHTS.ORG: There is an absolute conflict of interest between members of Congress who should be writing laws to protect airline passengers and them taking perks from the airlines.

JOHNS: Case in point. While most of us have to pay for reservations when we make them, some airlines allow members of Congress to double book seats on multiple flights. But unlike the average Joe traveler, members of Congress only pay for the flights they take, even as airlines often overbook flights.

HANNI: There's almost no seats available on planes right now because the airlines keep cutting back the number of seats that are actually available for you to sit in so they can make money on their flights. So when they double book a seat, they're actually taking up one available seat that the flying public could have.

JOHNS: Another perk -- free parking members of Congress get, including here at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

PETE SEPP, TAXPAYERS UNION: They pay absolutely nothing for the privilege of parking here. In fact, the revenues could easily amount to $1 million dollars or more.

JOHNS: And even though taxpayers are paying the freight, members of the House can use their frequent flier miles for personal travel, which irks some watchdog groups because if they use the miles only for business travel, they could save the taxpayers' money.

LESLIE PAIGE, CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: You only earn those miles because we paid you to fly back and forth as part of your job. I think they shouldn't be allowed to keep them. I think the overall problem with perks is that so much of them are decided by the congressmen themselves. JOHNS: Defenders say lawmakers are reasonably entitled to these perks.

(on camera): And why do members of Congress need so much special treatment from the air travel industry? Some will tell you it's because their jobs are so demanding and unpredictable that they need special treatment in order to cope with congressional schedules. Votes can occur late at night, early in the morning, even on weekends.

(voice-over): But it's also true that members of Congress are some of the most important customers the airlines serve because they are among the people who make the rules for the industry, which is why some are upset.

HANNI: There is no separation between Congress and the airlines when the airlines are allowed to offer our good senators and congressmen perks whenever they fly. They are never going to legislate a meaningful airline passenger bill of rights in the face of losing those perks.

JOHNS: And while a passenger bill of rights has been put together by the Senate, it hasn't yet been passed. Several airlines we contacted said offering such perks is legal and cited the difficult schedules of members of Congress as the main reason why they do it, though it may be little consolation the next time you're struggling to get through America's air travel gauntlet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: And if you're justifying this by saying these guys are people with government salaries and they don't get paid that much, the average salary for a member of the House or Senate is about $174,000 a year.

ROMANS: And they get to give themselves their own raise. That's what I love. Would you like to be able to give yourself your raise?

JOHNS: Absolutely. It's great work if you can get it, plus all the perks and benefits that you decide.

ROMANS: And the holidays.

Next after the break we're going to talk about the economy and we're going to talk about Dubai and what it could mean for U.S. markets and for this recovery that we've seen or the beginnings of a recovery. We're going to find out what we can be thankful for in the American economy. That's right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

We set out looking for bright spots in the economy, things to be thankful for in troubled times. Millions of Americans are hitting the stores today, retailers hoping that consumer confidence will bounce back. Many economists say things are getting better. They are beginning to get better.

But our unemployment rate still over 10 percent. And this morning, a potential disaster for the global economy at least a concern rattling nerves here -- Dubai possibly having to default on $60 billion worth of debt. Is this what it looks like?

Joining me is Diane Brady, senior editor for "BusinessWeek," and Ryan Mack, an investment adviser and president of Optimum Capital Management.

Ann, let me start with you. Nerves are rattled by what's happening in Dubai. Dubai World, a company that we in this country probably most know because its ports unit tried to buy the operations of our ports a few years ago with some political firestorm surrounding it.

How important is what's happening in Dubai on its debt with the financial system and the world economy?

DIANE BRADY, SENIOR EDITOR, "BUSINESSWEEK": Well, I think people are worried certainly about the lenders' exposure, but also let's not forget the Middle Eastern countries and particularly Dubai and the sovereign wealth funds have been an ATM for a lot of the world the last few years.

So if they're in trouble, much like we worry about China being in trouble, that's also seen as a barometer for the health of the world economy. So it's the level of debt, certainly, but I think the fact that it's Dubai which had its own bubble, that they're in trouble and may default I think also sets off jitters that may be above and beyond the actual dollar value.

ROMANS: And holidays in the Middle East and here, so we have to sort of see how the governments react, what kind of bailout they may be trying to put together.

In the meantime, we're watching, Ryan, all of these people coming to the doors of the malls in the middle of the night. Can I ask you, how does Black Friday fit into your recommendations for personal finance?

RYAN MACK, INVESTMENT ADVISER: It doesn't. It doesn't at all. I always tell individuals there will always be another sale. And one of the oldest ploys to tell you is that there's a 50 percent off sale, 30 percent off sale, as if there is never a sale to come behind that.

Come to think of it, the individuals may have bought the clothes for $25 and marked it up to $100 and then they mark it down to $50 and say 50 percent off sale. So they're still making 100 percent profit. And so this is one of the biggest scams as far as I'm concerned.

ROMANS: Well, do you think it's kind of emblematic of -- I mean, the consumer craziness in this country over the past 30 years, something that we end a holiday with, you know, a crowd sports experience that involves spending our money on stuff? MACK: Well, I think it's definitely problematic when you have stories like last year when individuals are getting trampled and killed at Wal-Mart to try to purchase items when we're not trampling to go put money into savings accounts, put money into retirement, to put money into our 401(k) plans. This is what we should be trampling for. But at the end of the day, you know, it's good marketing but sometimes we should market something a little bit more responsible.

ROMANS: We saw some pictures earlier this morning at Wal-Mart in Marietta, Georgia, where the GPS was sold out already. But then you were sort of steered along the line of all these other great door buster deals with very great price points. You could just see how someone. They didn't get the GPS, you keep buying other things. I mean, as if the retailers have tapped into our 2005 brain to try to convince us, Diane, that they want us to keep spending.

BRADY: Well, and I have to say that I actually like a little bit of irresponsibility. I mean, 70 percent of this economy is fueled by consumers. And the fact is retail prices are still low. We were expecting them to actually go higher this year. So I think the fact that people are seeing bargains and getting out there and shopping is good news for the economy. They're not going to be able to overextend themselves the way they did in 2005, but you want to see them having the confidence to go out and stand in line at 5:00 in the morning.

ROMANS: What else are you thankful for about the economy right now?

BRADY: Well, actually the stock market. Even though it's probably going to be vulnerable to the Dubai news, I think one of the things is -- last year, this time last year we were talking about a possible depression. We've avoided a depression.

Yes, there may be a double dip. You know, people are worried but the stock market has gone up 63 percent since March.

ROMANS: That's right.

BRADY: Now, that may be a bubble, but the reality is that's a sign of confidence that investors have and I think that's something to be thankful for, because it could have very much gone the other way.

ROMANS: What are you thankful for in the economy, Ryan?

MACK: Well, I'm thankful of the 3.2 percent savings rate. I mean, at the end of the day, I would rather have a one to two percent growth rate in GDP that's sustainable as opposed to a six or seven percent growth rate in GDP that we have seen with the sugar-high spending. So I'm glad that individuals are spending but let's do some smart spending. Let's put some money into our retirement and then figure out how much is left over to see how much we can go out and splurge on things like Black Friday.

ROMANS: And you said -- you said earlier that you were pleased with the economy growing at 3.5 percent.

MACK: Yes.

ROMANS: Then it was revised to 2.8 percent.

MACK: To 2.8 percent.

ROMANS: But you're still glad that we're seeing green arrows.

MACK: Like Diane said, we have to echo that. We pulled ourselves back from the brink of a huge depression. You know, I think the government did a lot of spending in the right places, the back and forth on whether the spending was right or wrong in that.

ROMANS: Right.

MACK: But at the end of the day, we did pull ourselves out of a big debacle. So I think I'm happy with the savings race.

ROMANS: And now the repair begins. We've pulled back. Now the repair begins, and that's where we are.

Diane Brady, Ryan Mack, thank you so much.

BRADY: Thank you.

ROMANS: It's 17 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

So is it a conspiracy or is it all just taken out of context? That's what a lot of people are wondering after hackers made public some sensitive e-mails they say show scientists cooked the books to make their case for climate change.

Here's Brooke Baldwin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The consensus that the climate is changing, that the burning of fossil fuels is the significant factor goes way beyond the pop culture sensation of Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and his appearance on last week's episode of "30 Rock" on NBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "30 ROCK" NBC)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Encourage your lawmakers to take action and recycle everything, including jokes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, sir. What?

GORE: Quiet. A whale is in trouble. I have to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: So when a reputable climate research institute has its computer server hacked and hundreds of its private e-mails made public, the news gets around fast, especially from groups that don't believe the global warming consensus.

One e-mail attributed to the research center's director had this cryptic excerpt referring to the, quote, "trick of adding in the real temps to each series to hide the decline in temperature." Because there's little context in that e-mail and the others, it's hard to know what they'll all add up to. The climate research unit in question here posted a message calling this e-mail hack job mischievous and saying it is helping the police investigate.

Senator James Inhofe has for many years portrayed this data showing the warming trend as a hoax and sees the e-mails as evidence.

SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), OKLAHOMA: I'm pleased by the vast and growing number of scientists, politicians, reporters all over the world who are publicly rejecting climate alarmism. Alarmism. This is those who want to scare people into some kind of action. You know, the water is going to rise up. The world is coming to an end.

BALDWIN: But the White House energy czar points to the 2,500 climate scientists all around the world who agree the climate is warming and that these e-mails aren't changing that. As for the American public, according to a "Washington Post"/ABC News poll out this week, the number of Americans who believe global warming is happening is down from 80 to 72 percent from last year. Down but still a large majority.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really do have a global warming. The polar bears are getting in trouble and the glaciers are melting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do think that we tend to blow things a little bit out of proportion, but I do think we need to be concerned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is overhyped. I think some of it is attributed to man, but not all of it.

BALDWIN: That same "Washington Post"/ABC News poll shows since 2006, the increase in climate skepticism is driven largely by a shift within the Republican Party and independents. There was also a dip among Democrats, but small. Still, a majority of respondents support a national cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Coming up, a really compelling and scary story that you all want to listen to about a runway danger at one of the nation's busiest airports. Something that is affecting one in every 700 inbound flights. Allan Chernoff with that startling report, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Well, it's kind of rainy, a little cloudy morning right now in New York City -- 47 degrees. You know, you can't even see the top of the Empire State building. Maybe save the 14 bucks for the ticket today, folks. Later it will be rainy and 47 in the Big Apple.

Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. This is a busy time for airports. Millions of Americans preparing to fly home after the Thanksgiving holiday.

JOHNS: And now comes word of serious safety concerns at one of the busiest airports in the nation. Allan Chernoff here with an A.M. original.

Allan, this involves close calls and aborted landings at Newark airport. And also there's a story here of a whistleblower who came up with a lot of information that wasn't received so well.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He was very concerned about the fact that there are intersecting runways at Newark airport that are used at the same time. And now federal investigators have concluded the landing procedures at Newark sometimes have allowed planes to come much too close to each other.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): A potential danger to the flying public. That's how federal investigators are describing the simultaneous use of intersecting runways at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the busiest in the nation.

Newark air traffic controller Ray Adams raised the issue after witnessing too many close calls from the control tower. On January 16th of last year, he saw two Continental planes miss each other by only 600 feet.

RAY ADAMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: That was very scary. I was there for that one personally in the control tower, and it scared the heck out of everybody up there.

CHERNOFF: Potential danger arises when approaching planes need to abort their landings, which happens about every 700 flights, according to an FAA analysis.

(on camera): Any plane aborting a landing along runway 11, which runs west to east here at Newark, has to make a sharp right turn, taking it into the path of two intersecting runways.

(voice-over): In what the FAA calls go-arounds, the diverted plane has to avoid planes landing and taking off from the intersecting runway. There is little margin for error. Four times last year and another four times this year, Newark air traffic control allowed planes to come too close together.

ADAMS: There was a distinct possibility that we could have had a collision with these operations the way they were run previously. CHERNOFF: Adams raised the safety issue to the FAA, but it went nowhere. He says his managers maintained there was no problem. Yet Adams persisted, taking his complaint to Congress. In response, he says, he was punished, put on paid leave for 11 months, then leave without pay for a month. The FAA says the disciplinary actions had nothing to do with Adams' safety concerns.

Adams filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which led Department of Transportation inspector general Calvin Scovel to investigate. He found merit in Adams' concerns, concluding two months ago, "questions about the safety of the runaway 221-11 approach configuration at Newark persist."

ADAMS: I've been vindicated at least on the safety concerns, and I'd like to see some accountability on the part of the FAA.

CHERNOFF: In response, the FAA promised to utilize a computer program that helps air traffic controllers stagger aircraft to ensure proper spacing. On November 5th, the Department of Transportation, which oversees FAA, told the Office of Special Counsel the computer system had been put to use. FAA implemented Converging Runway Display Aid technology at Newark on October 26. The very next day the U.S. Office of special counsel learned that, in fact, the technology was no longer in use at Newark.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: The FAA says it plans to have the computer system fully operational at Newark by mid-December. After a year out of the control tower, Ray Adams returned to his regular job on Wednesday.

JOHNS: OK. So let's talk about intent here. Do you have any sense as to whether the FAA was actually trying to mislead the office of Special Counsel about the computer assistance...

CHERNOFF: You get the impression it seems that way. But I don't believe that's what happened here. The FAA is saying that indeed the computer system was in place on October 26, was in place a few days after that, but following November 6th, it was no longer operational there.

ROMANS: Why not immediately implement? I mean, if you've got software that's available to help these air traffic controllers and the pilots, why wouldn't you be using - I don't understand why you wouldn't be using it in the first place.

CHERNOFF: Apparently there are some training issues as the FAA says. And also, they're saying they needs to be coordination between the Newark air traffic control and the New York region air traffic control. And apparently, that coordination had not been put in place. But, clearly, there's something here that can help the air traffic controllers and it clearly should be in place.

JOHNS: And we talked a little bit about this earlier. The question of intersecting runways. So the bottom line on using intersecting runways is, what, to try to get your planes off faster? CHERNOFF: Well, you've got lots of planes that need to come in and come out of the airport. And when you have intersecting runways and they're not intersecting right in the middle, only at the very end, that allows more traffic at Newark airport. So it's helping the airlines there, particularly Continental, which is the big airline at Newark airport.

ROMANS: Considering the volume of air travel in this country, Allan, your reports on air safety have just been incredibly important. Thank you.

CHERNOFF: Thank you.

ROMANS: You can read more about Allan's report on runway danger at our blog cnn.com/amfix.

JOHNS: Checking our top stories, it's all part of the Thanksgiving tradition, black Friday as it's called. This morning bargain hunters are hitting the stores in search of those deep discounts. And there is good news for the cash-starved retailers. Some experts predict the crowds will be a little thicker this year compared to last year.

ROMANS: We're watching your money this morning. Markets overseas in negative territory over fears of Dubai's debt situation. Japan's Nikkei closed down more than three percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng also down by more than four percent. Right now the Dow futures are down by more than 200 points.

JOHNS: And Iranian authorities have seized the Nobel Prize medal won by - in 2003 by human rights attorney Shirin Abadi. He won it for promoting democracy in Iran. Abadi said Tehran's revolutionary court ordered authorities to take the medal from her safe deposit box in Iran earlier this month. She also claims the Iranian government is trying to seize her home.

The Republican Party has been soul searching since the race for New York's 23rd congressional district dissolved into party infighting last month. The core question is the party moderate or is the party conservative? If our next guest has his way, it will be conservative.

Republican National Committee member James Bopp is proposing what many are calling a GOP purity test. The real title is "Reagan's unity principle of support for candidates." Jim Bopp, good morning to you. Thanks for coming on AMERICAN MORNING.

JIM BOPP, JR., MEMBER, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thank you for having me on.

JOHNS: So I guess the first question, the bottom line question is - lay it out for us, if you have will. If you were going to have a purity test - and I don't know if you agree with that label - what would be the elements of it? What are the kinds of things that go into the conservative Republican candidate that you'd like to see? BACH: Well, the question is what candidate should the Republican National Committee support with its financial resources. And our view is that the problem that the Republican Party has is restoring trust among conservatives. We lost our way in the Bush administration with too much spending, too much debt and then bailouts.

So we've got to show that we're serious about restoring our conservative bona fides. And we want to do that by saying that if a candidate wants the money of the Republican National Committee, they need to agree with at least most of the conservative principles that are - that have been adopted by the Republican Party in this platform.

JOHNS: All right. So it gets a little harder, though, doesn't it, when you start applying some of these tests to individuals who perchance might already be in Congress, say - or a senator...

BOPP: Well...

JOHNS: Think of Richard Lugar, for example. Is a guy like the kind of guy you think would be elected under this test?

BOPP: Well, yes, he is. And the - and what we've done is we have a list of 10 specific items that are currently being debated in Congress - cap and trade, Obamacare, government funding of abortion - and what we are saying is in this election cycle, our candidates, if they're in Congress, we will judge them by their vote.

Have they voted 80 percent of the time with the Republican position? If they're a candidate, it will be their public support, for like the stimulus package. If they supported it or voted for it, well, then that's a black mark against you. But what we are also saying, in addition to being loyal to Republican Party principles as reflected in current public policy debate is we also accept and welcome people of diverse views.

That's why we say 80 percent. Ronald Reagan said that somebody who agrees with us 80 percent of the time is our friend, not our enemy. We need to allow as a large national party that expects to retake Congress that people can disagree with us on specific items. But you must really agree with us most of the time if you want our money.

JOHNS: Now, let me ask you. You just mentioned Ronald Reagan. And I know some people on the left have had fun with this suggesting that people like Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush even, because they go outside of some of these tenets, might not have been able to stand up to this test.

For the record, do you think Ronald Reagan actually would have been able to make it under the test as you've laid it out?

BOPP: Every conservative knows that Ronald Reagan - and even liberals know that Ronald Reagan was the most conservative president in the last 100 years. No question about it. But remember what I said, the - we are talking about 10 current items being debated in Congress like cap and trade or victory in Iraq and Afghanistan or Obamacare.

Well, none of those things were being voted on in Congress in the 1980s. If we had a list of specific items that we wanted our candidates to support and our members of Congress to support, we'd have said Reagan tax cuts, support of the contras, missile defense. And of course Ronald Reagan was a great advocate of all those conservative positions.

But look at this. The Republican Party is not going to take the advice of liberal democrats on what they think we should do. I mean, they're afraid to death that we'll restore our conservative bona fides. The last thing they want us to do is to demonstrate to the American public that we are serious about being a conservative party.

JOHNS: One question that's also raised, I guess the overarching question, is whether you all are sort of, you know, running against your own interests here. Mark Mckinnon - I think we have a graphic we can put up of something he said - this is an old Bush strategist. He said "Just as the opportunity to expand seems to have sprung magically from the political mists, the Republican Party seems determined to shrink its ranks."

So are you going to end up shrinking your ranks here by creating this conservative tests that sort of drives the more moderate or even liberal, if you will, Republicans out of the party?

BOPP: No. That's not the problem at all. The problem is that more than 40 percent of the American public, the highest ever, self identify as conservatives, but less than 20 percent identify themselves as Republicans. That's the gap that we have to bridge. We have got to bring half the disaffected conservatives that are disaffected back into the Republican Party ranks.

If we had the support of conservatives as we should, as the conservative party, then we will be very successful in elections. Ronald Reagan, the most conservative president ever, after his first four years, won 49 states out of 50. The conservative message resonates throughout the country in nearly every part of the country. We can be a majority party if we just simply restore our conservative credentials.

JOHNS: Well, it will certainly be interesting to see how this goes for you. And I know a lot of people on the left have made fun of it. On the other hand, I was around when the contract with America came through with the same sort of idea. So let's see how it plays in the coming weeks and months. Thanks so much for coming in, Jim Bopp.

BOPP: Thank you for having me on.

ROMANS: All right. A Christmas tree farm that supplies their fourth official White House Christmas tree. There it is. I think it's a Douglas fir. It looks like - it smells like a Douglas fir when you smell it just as it's being cut like that.

JOHNS: And it comes from West Virginia, I hear. They're bringing it in with all the pomp and circumstance due the White House. And this first couple, their first Christmas in the White House.

ROMANS: All right. So we're going to have that for you right after the break. Don't go away.

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ROMANS: Nothing says Christmas like Elvis. First lady Michelle Obama will be presented with the official White House Christmas tree today.

JOHNS: And the owners of that tree that won the honor say it was a complete surprise. Dan Lothian has more in an "A.M." original.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Joe, first ladies have welcomed official Christmas trees to the White House since 1929. This year's tree comes from a farm in Shepherd's Town, West Virginia, from a paver farmers who have been here before.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the baby here now. We have to figure out how we're going to get this loaded.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): For Eric and Gloria Sundback, this is a holiday tradition. Growing a Christmas tree fit for a president.

ERIC SUNDBACK, CHRISTMAS TREE GROWER: You're helping make a Christmas for the whole country.

LOTHIAN: The West Virginia couple, both in their 80s, have grown four presidential Christmas trees - one for Jimmy Carter, two for Ronald Reagan and now this 18 1/2 foot Douglas fir destined for the Obama White House.

SUNDBACK: What we really like this year is that it's going to a family. The children are there. The family is well knit.

LOTHIAN: To provide the White House tree, a farmer has to be crowned by the National Christmas Tree Association. Then White House officials make a visit.

GLORIA SUNDBACK: They're looking for trees that have good form and for trees that have stronger branches because they use a lot of decorations.

LOTHIAN: And it takes a lot of hard work to grow that perfect presidential tree. Careful pruning, experimenting to get the right mix of characteristics, and a little tough love.

E. SUNDBACK: She had a - a word with the seed bed, you know, when she'd get up in the morning, get out, and things are going and say, "Well, fellows, you want to be a Christmas tree now or are you going to wait until later and be toilet paper?" And that gets the tree growing.

LOTHIAN: These college sweethearts who've been growing trees for 50 years are hoping to shake the Obamas' hands when they drop off this holiday gift, but then it's back to work.

E. SUNDBACK: You don't want to let it go - go to your head because you're going to come back and work again.

G. SUNDBACK: That's right. You're right in (INAUDIBLE).

LOTHIAN: But they say they're happy knowing their gift will bring joy to the First Family.

SUNDBACK: We hope they enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed Christmas as kids. So the - the tree is good and they enjoy it. That's - that's what it's about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: The tree will be decorated and displayed in the Blue Room where it will take center stage to a host of White House holiday celebrations - Christine, Joe.

ROMANS: All right. So your grandma's house, you're full - we're joking...

JOHNS: Absolutely.

ROMANS: ... because you're full at your grandma's house, you know, kids are running wild and now you have to figure out how to get home. Oh, yes, there's a snowstorm in the northeast and a freeze warning in the south.

JOHNS: Yes. That's right. What would it be this time of year without a little bit of trouble up there in the skies? So we're going to be coming back to Jacqui Jeras in a just a couple of minutes.

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JOHNS: Oh, yes. Miami, Florida sunny, 66 degrees right now, 71 degrees a little bit later.

Hello, Logan and Avery Johns. My son and daughter are there in Miami right now, enjoying some good weather. Hi, guys! Happy Thanksgiving a little bit late.

ROMANS: OK. So, Jacqui, just for Joe's kids - what? Seventy-one later today, we think? Maybe 71 in Miami?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, it looks great in Miami. A little windy, though, you know? That's something you're going to have to deal with.

And we're also watching those winds, by the way, for the shuttle landing that's just about two hours away. NASA right now, though, says all is a go.

OK, guys, are you holiday shopping today?

ROMANS: No. JOHNS: No way.

JERAS: Come on! Not even online?

ROMANS: No, Ryan Mack says Black Friday does not fit into his personal finance strategy. And I trust Ryan Mack.

JERAS: To each his own. I was shocked at the traffic on the way in...

JOHNS: I'm just broke.

JERAS: ...by the way this morning. Crazy out there.

Well, you're going to need an umbrella...

ROMANS: (INAUDIBLE).

JOHNS: Yes.

JERAS: You're going to need the umbrella and you're to need a little patience, obviously, if you're going out there today. We've got some wet weather all across the northeastern corner, and even a little snow mixed in along I-81 just east of the Syracuse area.

It's not going to be really heavy snow for the most part as we warm up throughout the day. It's mostly just rain showers, but anytime you get that kind of weather in the Northeast, it means travel delays. So if you are trying to fly today, look out for delays in DC as well as New York City and Boston, some winds in Miami as we mentioned and some fog and clouds in San Francisco.

Joe and Christine, back to you.

ROMANS: All right. Jacquie Jeras. Thanks.

JERAS: I'm shopping later. I don't care what you say.

ROMANS: Good for you.

All right. Coming up next, we're going to tell you about US diabetes cases. They're expected to double and costs triple in the near-term here. We'll tell you about that, what we can do about it.

JOHNS: It certainly doesn't sound like it's something the government was really thinking of when they put together their estimates on how to handle the matter in health care. So we'll be right back with that.

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ROMANS: Good morning, Atlanta! Atlanta, Georgia where it's sunny and 34 degrees. It's going to get a little bit warmer today, though. We're going to have the temperature - temperature gauge going up to 56. It will be sunny all day in Atlanta.

Happy day after Thanksgiving. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

$300 billion. That's how much a new study projects will be spent on diabetes care in the next 25 years. CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now with more details of this report. And Elizabeth, how much of the increase is from current figures?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Christine, when you look at what the increase in diabetes is going to be now versus 25 years in the future, the numbers are really stunning.

Let's take a look at these numbers from a new study out of the University of Chicago. According to the study, now there are about 23.7 million diabetics in the US. By 2034, that number will nearly double to 44.1 million.

Now, Christine, you might think it's because Americans are getting heavier, but when they did the statistical analysis, they just assumed that Americans would not get heavier, that we'd stay the same. So this increase is actually just due to the fact that Americans are ageing. Those baby boomers are getting older - Christine.

ROMANS: Wow! It's sure to take a toll on the health care system, and how much does all of that cost? What can we project from that?

COHEN: The numbers are so huge that it's actually kind of hard to get your head around it. But let's take a look at what those numbers are.

Right now the spending for diabetes is about $113 billion. Because of this huge increase, they project that the spending will go up to $336 billion.

Now, not to throw too many numbers at you, but take a look. This is very interesting. It's estimated that if we could control diabetes, we could save $217 million a year. So wouldn't that be amazing? If we can control diabetes, think of all the lives we could save, plus save $217 million a year.

ROMANS: All right. Now, what do we have to do to slow down this increase?

COHEN: You know, there's nothing mysterious here, Christine. We're talking diet and exercise. Keep your weight down, keep exercising. And it doesn't have to be sort of Olympic-level exercising. Even just 30 minutes of vigorous walking a day can help decrease your chances of getting diabetes.

ROMANS: OK. So walk. A little walking can do a body good.

COHEN: That's right.

ROMANS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

Hi, Joe. JOHNS: And you can also exercise at the malls. Ready, set, shop! We're back with top stories in 90 seconds.

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