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American Morning
Obama Vows to Fight for Jobs; Tracking Those Stimulus Dollars to Thedford, Nebraska; How Did Obama Do in the Ratings?
Aired January 28, 2010 - 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: And a good Thursday morning to you. It's the 28th of January. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories we're telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
You can call it the official start of year two of the Obama administration, the president looking for a fresh start with independent voters and the middle class. In his State of the Union message last night, after a rough first year, he is promising to put millions of Americans back to work in 2010 after we hit double digit unemployment last year.
ROBERTS: And this morning, did the president's big speech make the grade? Hear from top Republicans and Democrats. Plus, we've got the best political team on television assembled right here to break down whether the address was enough to end all the bickering in Congress.
CHETRY: Plus, the Stimulus Project here at CNN. We're following the money to the small town of Thedford, Nebraska. It's home to a brand new $7 million bridge funded by the stimulus, meaning your tax dollar. So was it worth it? Just ask the locals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really, in all honesty, we don't know what the point is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They asked everybody's opinion, but it didn't matter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just feel like (INAUDIBLE). They told us it's down the river.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have not seen anything that said we benefitted from this, not yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, our Christine Romans is tracking your tax dollars with this story -- coming up.
We begin, though, with President Obama's new plan to put Americans back to work. White House aides tell us that the State of the Union was going to focus like a laser on the economy, and it did. The president is saying he's committed to creating jobs in 2010. He did not mention health care until halfway through the speech, and when he did, he admitted mistakes, taking blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people. But he didn't back down completely, telling lawmakers, "Don't walk up," and attempt to recharge his presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment -- to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Some critics, though, saying it sounded like a rehashed campaign speech.
Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry kicks off the best political team coverage this morning.
And it's interesting, another criticism. We just interviewed former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, who said he wanted to hear more. He felt like that there should have been more on national security.
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran.
That's right. That's certainly -- you can tell based on how much time was spent on the economy, but that's really taking over this agenda. And there was little on national security for sure. But the president was blunt about political mistakes, as you noted. But he was also pretty defiant about saying he's not give up on health care or a lot of the other key pieces of his agenda.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): It was the pivot his critics believe he should have made months ago, health care now on the back burner; the pain of a lingering economic recession, front and center.
OBAMA: I realize that for every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from. That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that's why I'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight.
HENRY: On health care, he took his share of blame for not explaining the issue clearly enough, and was self-deprecating about the political wounds.
OBAMA: By now, it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics.
(LAUGHTER)
HENRY: The topic that consumed most of his presidency was now just a short plea in a nearly 70-minute State of the Union address.
OBAMA: Don't walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let's us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Let's get it done.
HENRY: There was a laundry list of other policy proposals: reforms for Wall Street, climate change legislation, more money for education. And the president defended last year's work, especially the stimulus package, and was also candid, almost wistful about promises unkept.
OBAMA: I campaigned on the promise of change. Change we can believe in --the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change, or that I can deliver. But remember this: I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone.
HENRY: He concluded with an optimistic call for both sides to come together.
OBAMA: We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade, but a new year has come, a new decade stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment -- to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Now, some of the speech was really a challenge to Republicans basically say after Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, with 41 Senate votes, Republicans can't just say now. They've got to try to meet the president halfway. But if you listen to Bob McDonnell, the Virginia governor, gave the official Republican response, he was basically saying there are some things they can work together on, but there are a lot of other things where the Republicans feel the president is turning to government too much for the answer and they're just not going to compromise on that, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Ed Henry for us at the White House this morning -- thanks.
HENRY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: President Obama also took aim at the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down limits on corporate spending on political campaigns.
Take a look here.
As you can see, Justice Samuel Alito didn't like what he was hearing and he had a rather dissenting opinion, shall we say, as the president argued that the ruling opened the floodgates to special interest and foreign corporations in election. Alito was seen shaking his head and appears to mouth the words, "Not true."
CHETRY: Well, Justice Alito may not be the only one who disagreed with the president. In the Republican response Ed Henry alluded to just a moment ago, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell attacked the Obama administration's formula for rescuing the economy.
Here's a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOB MCDONNELL (R), VIRGINIA: Today, the federal government is simply trying to do too much. Last year, we were told that massive new federal spending would create more jobs immediately and hold unemployment below 8 percent. In the past year, more than 3 million people have lost their jobs, and yet, the Democratic Congress continues deficit spending, adding to the bureaucracy and increasing the national debt on our children and our grandchildren.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Last hour, I spoke to former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. And I asked him what he liked and disliked about President Obama's State of the Union address.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I was very encouraged by nuclear power. I think this country needs that we're way behind, actually behind China or India now...
CHETRY: Right.
GIULIANI: ... in terms of plans. We're behind France, which is 80 percent nuclear.
I thought he was quite correct. We should look for some offshore drilling opportunities. I thought embracing -- hopefully, I think he's embracing, couldn't tell quite, but the free trade agreement with North Korea, Colombia and Panama -- these are all things Republicans this morning should say: Give us the legislation, we're ready to go, let's find some things we can work together.
The biggest part of the speech I was disappointed with was national security, which he mentioned for -- that almost seemed to me like a -- like a footnote, like an afterthought.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Giuliani went on to say that Republicans could support a jobs bill, the party, though, is still unsure exactly what that the bill will entail. He says Republicans want to make sure it's not a remake of the economic stimulus -- John.
ROBERTS: Well, let's bring in our political panel. Bob Shrum, professor of public service at New York University and longtime Democratic strategist, is with us; along with Ed Rollins, Republican strategist and CNN senior political analyst; and, of course, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.
So, a real pivot from health care to jobs, Candy. This was, obviously, a necessary move this year.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The road map was the polls.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CROWLEY: We've seen this steadily, really, since early fall -- really since maybe midsummer, I think, as we track back is when his poll numbers began falling on policies, anyway. I think what the president tried to do last night and we'll see, as for a couple months whether this was the beginning of something, was to take what really is his personal popularity, because on personal qualities, people really want to like this president. They do like this president. It's when you get to his policies that the numbers begin to fall below 50.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CROWLEY: So, he's got to translate that power of the personality that he has, and Ed could speak to this because he worked for a...
ROBERTS: Sure.
CROWLEY: ... president who had quite a powerful personality, and people really liked him even when they disagreed with him. So, he's got to take that power and somehow get people behind him long enough for his policies to work if they're going to.
ROBERTS: Bob, the last time you were on, you were calling for the president to focus more on jobs. The question many people might have is: Why did he wait so long?
BOB SHRUM, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE, NEW YORK UNIV.: Well, I wish he'd given the speech a year ago. I think his problem was not that he tried to do too much. In a way, it was that he tried to do too little or the country thought he was trying to do only one thing.
Jobs, health care, financial reform, I think those things are high on the agenda for all Americans. And the way he did it last night, I mean, I disagree a little bit with some of the reporting and analyses here -- he couldn't make, as I said in the last hour, he could make health care the centerpiece of this. But the critical question was: Was he going to walk away from it? Had he walk away from it, he would have away from the likelihood that he could have a significant presidency, he would have communicated a lot of weakness. I thought he did the opposite last night. He did it with good humor and a sense of confidence, when people were watching to see whether or not he was going to be kind of wobbly and indecisive.
ROBERTS: Ed, to what degree are Republicans willing to work with him on getting people back to work?
ED ROLLINS, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: If he gives them something, you know, lower taxes, focus towards small business...
(CROSSTALK)
ROLLINS: Then we will basically be very supportive. If it's a big stimulus, create a bunch of government jobs, I don't think they'll be quite as interested in going forward. If it's the House bill that's already been passed, that he threw down to the Senate, pass that bill, I don't think there'd be much acceptance of that.
ROBERTS: You know, this overall idea, too, Candy, change. You know, the way that he rode into office, he comes back last night and says, oh, it's difficult. I'm reminded of that Coldplay song that says, oh, it's difficult. I'm reminded of that Coldplay where they sing: no one never said it was easy, no one ever said it was going to be this hard, though.
Every president comes into Washington with an idea to change the culture there and they run smack up against this wall. Is it even possible?
CROWLEY: Well, it depends on what changing the culture means. Partisanship is not in and of itself a bad thing. I mean, this become sort of four-letter word in some ways. I mean, the system is kind of set up should one party doesn't run rampant and shove things through. I think what people are actually responding to is what seems to be the incivility, what seems to be a hardening of -- you know, a personalizing of things.
I do think here where the Republicans have to be careful, I think Ed is right, I mean, if it's in the interest of the Republicans to help and if they agree with the policy, they'll do so, is everybody is walking a fine line. Democrats cannot run on "the Republicans won't let us do it." That's just not a way to do it. But the Republicans can't run on "Well, we're not going to help." So, they both got to find some...
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: So, how do you come together? How do you come together?
SHRUM: I don't think there will be a coming together, to be quite honest. I think there will be some things where Republicans will say, we can do it because right now the pressure is on them to do it.
ROBERTS: OK. So, there's no coming together. So, what do...
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: What do the American people do? Do we just sit back for another 11 months and watch nothing happen.
SHRUM: They are not us. They are not commentators. What they're asking is, is the health -- are we going to get health reform that we like? And I think the president has a plan to do that, by the way, he didn't talk about last night. They're saying, are jobs going to be created? Is the economy going to get better?
ROBERTS: He can't even pass a budget.
CROWLEY: He'll cut taxes.
(CROSSTALK)
SHRUM: I think they will pass some tax cuts.
ROLLINS: First of all, dialogue is important. What has not occurred in the last six months has been really the dialogue. They haven't had to meet. I'm surprised. We used to have meetings every other week with bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans, and you talk about the initiatives. There's been no dialogue and...
SHRUM: That's just not true, Ed. They've been getting (ph) those meetings with Republicans.
ROLLINS: No. It is not -- it is not, Bob.
SHRUM: The president has met over and over and over again...
ROLLINS: The president...
SHRUM: ... with Republican leaders, Republicans senators.
ROLLINS: The president is going this week to meet with Republicans. The bottom...
SHRUM: No, he's going to their conference, which seldom occurs.
ROLLINS: He's going to meet with Republicans. Just let me -- just let me finish my thoughts. I can carry my thought...
SHRUM: I know they just happen to be wrong, that's all.
ROLLINS: All right. But at the end of the day, you know, you're not an expert on Republicans and I'm not an expert on Democrats.
SHRUM: Well, actually I have had to live with too many Republicans.
(LAUGHTER) ROLLINS: Let's get to the point. The point is, if you had some dialogues, we're diametrically opposed on a lot of the issues. Republicans are not for big spending and big taxing, and that's the bottom line. I think Democrats, clearly with this president particularly want to do this. Their battle right today is not about us, it's about them.
The House and the Senate can't get together. You can't pass the Senate bill in the House on health care. You can't pass the House bill there.
SHRUM: I think it will happen.
ROLLINS: Well, we'll see.
The president last night basically said, take the jobs bill of the House and pass it in the Senate. Take the energy bill, pass it in the Senate.
We'll see what happens. They got 59 votes. Let's see what happens.
ROBERTS: We got to wrap it. A microcosm of Washington right here in New York.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Thanks, folks.
ROLLINS: Thank you for speaking for me.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: I thought that I was doing pretty well for you.
ROLLINS: You did very well. Thank you.
ROBERTS: OK. Let me see if I can throw a lifeline to Kiran on this.
CHETRY: All right, guys. Well, our State of the Union coverage continues in a moment.
First, though, some other stories developing this morning. Toyota again having another recall this morning: 1.1 million more vehicles are being recalled because of faulty floor mats. Those floor mats can jam gas pedals. Now, this is the second massive recall in just two weeks for the world's largest car company. Toyota is now announcing large recalls in Europe as well.
And also, two gun-toting members of the NBA's Washington Wizards have now been suspended for the rest of the season. Commissioner David Stern announcing that Gilbert Arenas and his teammate, Javaris Crittenton will not be permitted to suit up for any more games this year. Crittenton was not playing actually this season. But Arenas was and he's a star there. He admits bringing guns into the team's locker room in December. He faces possible jail time when sentenced in March.
And former vice presidential nominee, John Edwards, and his wife, Elizabeth, have legally separated. The source closed to Elizabeth Edwards confirms that the separation was finalized some time ago and news comes just weeks -- just a week actually before a tell-all book written by a former close confidant of John Edwards is set to hit bookshelves. Just last week, Edwards admitted that he was the father of his mistress Rielle Hunter's daughter.
ROBERTS: Well, we're coming up now on 14 minutes after the hour. Jacqui Jeras is watching all the weather across the country.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: All right the stimulus project. We continue day four today we are tracking the money that the federal government has spread out across America. Your tax dollars, your tax dollars at work. Your tax dollars to waste. Why a town in Nebraska got $41,000 of stimulus dollars per - of stimulus dollars per person. Wait until you hear this story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning with a revised price tag now of $862 billion, the stimulus is one of the most expensive bills passed. And this week we are breaking down how your money is being spent with the CNN stimulus project.
CHETRY: Yes we are looking today at $7 million bridge. It's being built in a tiny Nebraska town. And our Christine Romans is being talking to people there, a lot of them saying it's a huge waste of cash. Hey, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of these towns on paper, they're the per capita winners of all of the stimulus money, and they say wait a second, per capita, we didn't really get anything. Let me show you some of these towns and counties frankly where there is a lot of per capita stimulus money. A big one here Franklin county in Kentucky, $27,941 per capita. The state capital Frankfort is in this county and there's about 100 road projects underway just in on county. So that's why it is such a big per capita winner on paper.
There is also Aiken County in South Carolina. There's a billion dollar nuclear site cleanup there that makes Aiken county a $10,000 per capita recipient of stimulus.
And then we have our little town of Thedford, Nebraska, it's in Thomas county in Western Nebraska. Here are the stats on this one -- population 168 in Thedford. Cost of a bridge in the town, $6.9 million, that means the cost per capita on paper$41,000 per resident.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): In the Nebraska sand hills, in the small ranching town of Thedford, long time resident Marv Blauvelt still doesn't know why millions in stimulus money landed on his front yard.
MARV BLAUVELT: We just feel they sold us down the river, really.
ROMANS: Maybe not a river, but a railroad. A railroad bridge to be exact. The citizens of Thedford, all 168 of them, will get this new $7 million bridge to replace this railroad crossing on the way into town and right through Marv's front yard.
ROMANS (on camera): Can you explain to me what the point is of this bridge?
BLAUVELT: Well, really in all honesty, we don't know what the point is, except some design engineer in Lincoln decided that this is what needed to be done.
ROMANS (voice-over): Nebraska officials say the new bridge means cars will avoid waiting for trains. Sometimes the wait is 30 seconds. Sometimes three minutes. The bridge also means train engineers don't have to worry about safety at the crossing.
MONTY FREDRICKSON, DIRECTOR, NEBRASKA DEPT. OF ROADS: Eliminating the conflict between the rail in the highway is an important feature, both from a safety aspect, continuity, mobility, and especially emergency services.
ROMANS (on camera): It's standard country living to wait for the train at the rail crossing in some 60 to 80 trains every day go rumbling through here. On paper, at least, this rail crossing is a traffic and safety issue. But residents say they never minded the wait. And the big stimulus bridge to replace this crossing, they say that stimulus bridge is nothing more than a big detour.
MIKE HODGES, THEDFORD BUSINESS OWNER: The amount of time it's going to take you to go around the loop to get back to the highway is probably about the same amount of time you would have sat and waited for the train to go by.
ROMANS (voice-over): During town meetings, Mike Hodges, owner of a local service station, tried to fight the project, which cut through his property.
HODGES: They had their mind made up what they were going to do, how they were going to do it. They ask everybody's opinion, but it didn't matter.
JUDY TAYLOR, COUNTY TREASURE AND TOWN CHAIRMAN: We saw no money.
ROMANS: Judy Taylor is the county treasurer and Thedford's town chairman.
TAYLOR: I haven't seen anything that said we benefitted from this. Not yet.
ROMANS: All she sees is a little town with a very big bridge.
TAYLOR: I think it's humongous. ROMANS: The Nebraska roads department says the bridge was an appropriate stimulus project. It was shovel ready.
FREDRICKSON, DIRECTOR, NEBRASKA DEPT. OF ROADS: One of the main criteria of the whole bill in the first place is to get money on the street fast and put people to work.
ROMANS: So who's building the bridge? Not Nebraskans, a Colorado contractor won the bid, using its own out of state workers. A few locals were hired as temps, like Trina Mentel, she waved a flag for $10 an hour, enough to make her technically a stimulus worker.
TRINA MENTEL, TEMP BRIDGE WORKER: It was there, now it's gone. I didn't gain anything except a part-time job for a couple months. That's it.
ROMANS: And that's the Thedford's beef. No economic benefit, no full-time jobs, and a lot of taxpayer money just to cross the railroad tracks.
ROMANS (on camera): No matter what, $7 million is a lot of money anywhere, but especially here.
BLAUVELT: Yes, definitely. Buy a lot of cows. Buy a lot of cattle.
(END VIDEOTAPE).
ROMANS: So we asked the railroad BNSF to weigh in on the benefit of this big bridge. After all it benefitted this railroad which is owned by a Nebraskan, the billionaire Warren Buffett. The railroad said it didn't lobby for this project. but supports it for safety reasons, and they will pay more than $300,000 on top of that almost $7 million that you are paying. But they'll do that when the bridge is done and the railroad crossing is no longer operational.
So bottom line for this project, $6,943,648 million for the bridge in Thedford. Jobs, 20 of them, created in Denver that were already existing jobs for the construction company and maybe two or three local jobs that have since ended. We say two or three because there will be more part time work in the spring when they have to pave this. It will need a few people who live there locally to turn the signs.
ROBERTS: So really no jobs really created from this.
ROMANS: No, permanent jobs. No, no new permanent jobs created from this. A little bit of business for the little - for the couple motels in town that had the Denver construction workers stayed there some nights, the diner maybe had a little business. Mike Hodges that runs the Koniko said, sold a little bit of gas, but not really a margin I guess.
So you know, they just don't see a really big impact from this. They just see a big detour and bridge. And you know Nebraskans are so darn practical, they just all kept saying what is the point? What's the point? They weren't really angry, they just kept saying what's the point, don't call us the biggest per capita recipient because we didn't receive anything.
CHETRY: Right cause then (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ROMANS: All right.
CHETRY: Christine thanks.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: It's that curse of practicality.
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Thanks Christine.
Tomorrow's stimulus dollars helping out of work Americans change careers. We'll have the story of one family in Ohio here at the Most News in the Morning.
And tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern, the stimulus project continues on "CAMPBELL BROWN." A tiny town in Alaska is getting 15 million stimulus dollars. Find out why.
And two senators in D.C. are furious saying more than $50 million stimulus dollars went to a wine train in Napa. Is that really true? Some answers at 10 eastern on "AC360."
And of course you can see more of our special stimulus project coverage online. Just head to CNN.com/stimulus.
CHETRY: Still ahead, "don't ask don't tell." We are going to get live reaction from the Pentagon on the President's renewed commitment to end that policy. It's 25 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning, we are going to take a look right now at the President road testing his new commitment to jobs in Tampa, Florida today.
It was a central theme in his first State of the Union address, which was well received. We have some instant polling after the speech. Let's take a look at it right now. 48 percent in the CNN opinion research poll had a very positive reaction, 30 percent somewhat positive. And about 21 percent say that they were negative about the speech. We should point out the breakdown of the speech watchers, 38 percent Democrat and 25 percent Republican. 37 percent counted themselves as independent.
All right so this morning we also want to take a look at President's Obama's approval rating compared to past Presidents after their first year. And here we talk a look this is President Obama's approval rating, this poll was conducted by CNN opinion research January 22nd to the 24th, a 49 percent job approval rating. Now, at the beginning of taking off, he had about a 67 percent job approval rating. Let's take a look at other presidents.
This is the State of the Union, and of course it was just a few months after the 9/11 terror attacks and the response. But George W. Bush back in 2002, in January, before the State of the Union, 84 percent approval rating, very high. Take a look at President Clinton in 1994, his approval rating according to Gallup before the State of the Union, a year into his presidency, 54 percent.
And then you take a look at Ronald Reagan, a lot of comparisons have been made to the difficult time he had and the economic challenges in his first year and those of President Obama, well they are quite similar actually. His approval rating in 1982, a year into office 48 percent.
And also what is very interesting. Former President Clinton got a 10-point bump in popularity after his State of the Union address. And Reagan's popularity actually grew five points after his address. John.
ROBERTS: Yes interesting to see the way that those numbers move.
Funny little moment that you might have missed during the State of the Union speech. It came at the expense of Mrs. Obama who wasn't exactly comfortable with being the center of attention last night.
Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: And by the way, I want to acknowledge our first lady, Michelle Obama, who this year is creating a academic movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make kids healthier. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
She gets embarrassed.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Don't make me the center of attention.
CHETRY: There were a few light moments during the state of the union, and a lot of our commentators and analysts hadn't seen that in a while. It was a little bit refreshing.
ROBERTS: It was an interesting speech last night, and the proof is in the pudding. We'll see where things go in the next month.
It's half past the hour now, and checking our top stories. An incredible rescue from the rubble in Haiti. Wait until you hear this story. A 16-year-old girl found alive 15 days after the earthquake. Doctors say the girl was trapped in concrete near a bathroom in her home which had collapsed, and she did have access to some water. CHETRY: Toyota announcing yet another major recall, its second since last week, this time faulty floor mats that can jam the gas pedal. The company recalled millions of cars last fall for the very same reason, and now another 1.1 million vehicles are affected.
The latest announcement coming just a day after Toyota halted sales of production of eight models with potentially defective accelerators and barely a week after recalling more than 2 million cars for the same reason.
ROBERTS: President Obama delivering a message to the military in his state of the union address. He wants to end the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prevents openly gay women and men from serving in the armed services.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: This year I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay American the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.
(APPLAUSE)
It's the right thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Joining us now with morning after reaction to the president's new push to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," Barbara Starr, is live at the Pentagon, this morning, Brianna Keilar live on the Hill.
And Barbara, let's start with you. This is something the president promised during the election campaign. We saw no action on it in 2009. What is the reaction at the Pentagon this morning now that it looks like he will push ahead of it?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It does, John, and that puts the Joint Chiefs of Staff square in the middle. For the first time they will have come out in public and say what they think, whether or not they support this move by the president.
They have been quiet until now, and they will give the president the best military advice. They certainly are going to be asked about it publicly.
I have to tell you there is a wide divergence of opinion in the U.S. military. Some are in favor of repealing it, saying it's time, just get on with it and get rid of this outdated law, and some say, no, it's not time, it's not right. Because the nation is involved in two wards they don't exactly tell you when they think it will be the right time.
So a lot of controversy, a lot of sensitivity about this, and the TV cameras said it all last night. The Joints Chiefs of Staff did not applaud. They sat their stone-faced, offering no reaction when the president made his remarks, John.
ROBERTS: Brianna, what is the next political move here? It's one thing for a candidate to say I want to do this, but in the first year I had a lot on my plate and could not get to it, but now that he's reiterated it in the state of the union, it looks like he has to do something this year.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Democrats say it would be difficult. It's going to be a tough election year for Democrats here on Capitol Hill. If Democrats were to do it, we understand what they would do is attach it to a must-pass piece of legislation, like the defense authorization bill, and that would be in the spring or summer.
And we would see hearings, which would create a whole lot of drama and also problems for Democrats and Republicans. For Democrats, for instance, the House armed services chairman Democrat, top Democrat on the committee, Ike Skelton, has said this isn't really the time for this, and his committee is one that would hold a hearing.
And then for Republicans, there is an admission by Republicans, and Democrats say this, that this would create an issue for some on the right side of their party and make them look out of touch with Americans. Democrats telling us they think they have the votes for this, Republicans saying they doubt it.
But the bottom line is it would be tough, John. And I did hear from a Democratic source who said, look, the president will need to do more than just give one line of his state of the union to this issue.
ROBERTS: All right, well, we'll see where this issue goes, because certainly a lot of people will watch closely for some results here. Brianna Keilar and Barbara Starr, thanks so much.
CHETRY: And the president's first state of the union signaled a new priority for 2010, creating jobs. He was reaching out to the middle class in last night's speech. So did he make a connection? Carol Costello went to Youngstown, Ohio, to watch people watching the president.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim Krakowski's (ph) bar was packed for a Wednesday night, the crowd, middle class Democrats and independents gathered here to knock a few back while they watched the president try to reach out to them.
OBAMA: I have never been more hopeful about America's future than tonight.
(APPLAUSE)
COSTELLO: It was a good try, but --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is having a dream. COSTELLO: His skepticism isn't surprising. Youngstown, Ohio, hasn't seen signs the recession is easing. One-third of the people here live below the poverty level.
OBAMA: I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone.
COSTELLO: It's something people here understand, but distrust in government at all levels runs deep, even with some Democrats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They should be embarrassed, the Democrats and Republicans, they should be embarrassed what they are doing to us now.
COSTELLO: In an attempt to ease that kind of anger, the president offered populist proposals, like tax credits for childcare and a cap on student loan programs. His most popular idea here, though, using money paid back by bailed out Wall Street banks to help small businesses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he means it, but can he get it done?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It seems as if he was trying to put a lot of sugar on a lot of things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just seemed like he was jumping around a lot of things and just trying to appease everybody.
COSTELLO: Still, others felt the president showed the kind of resolve they heard during his run for president, especially when he called for an end to partisanship.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The civil war is over with. We don't need another one between the Democrats and Republicans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Keep in mind, Kiran, Youngstown is a heavily Democratic city -- 70 percent voted for Obama in 2008. They wanted to see the old Obama back, and they did think that President Obama had the right tone. They like him personally.
But did he reach out to the middle class and convince them that he was now fighting for them? They like to think so, but as they say here in the Midwest, action speaks louder than words. They want details and they want jobs, they don't want ideas.
CHETRY: So people you talked to are a little bit skeptical, and you said they want action. So what do they want to see him do?
COSTELLO: What they would like to see him do is come down to Washington and bring a bag of money and save some of the businesses that are going out of businesses. They want their own bailout.
They know that's not going to happen, but they want President Obama to somehow create jobs. They want the federal government's help in doing that. They heard some ideas in the speech last night, but time will tell, as they say.
CHETRY: All right, Carol, Costello for us this morning. Thank you so much.
What about a second stimulus? Is there a need for it and is it something that makes sense? It's sort of the jobs plan that the president outlined yesterday. Our money panel will break it down, the pluses and the minuses and whether or not it's feasible, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
President Obama calling for Congress to act last night and demanding new legislation to help America's 15 million unemployed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help. And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Jobs bill or what other people say is really just another stimulus package -- is it the answer? Joining us to talk about it, economic analyst Lakshman Achuthan, also from "Fortune" magazine and Dailybeast.com William Cohen, and Diane Brady, senior editor at Bloomberg Business Week. And thanks to all of you for being with us.
And Diane, let me start with you. So he calls for this new jobs bill, basically a second stimulus package, and it would be designed to spur job growth, a mix of some tax cuts and some breaks for businesses. He talked about eliminating capital gains on small businesses.
Is that enough to make a difference it this job market?
DIANE BRADY, SENIOR EDITOR, "BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK": I think what's really challenging right now is you put more money in Americans' pockets, chances are they will save it because they don't have the confidence in the economy, and that's what creates real, sustainable jobs.
So you can talk about creating jobs, but realistically, especially with the stimulus we already had, there is a limit to how much he can do until Americans have the confidence back and they start buying.
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC ANALYST: Absolutely. It greases the wheels of a recovery that's already happening, you see. And so that recovery that is already happening, you know, on the margin gets helped by any additional stimulus money that may come down the pike.
The key thing is you don't have to trust this plan, I don't think. It's already happening underfoot right now. And the same types of leading indicators that forecast a very strong rise in GDP, which you will hear more about tomorrow, very importantly are not pointing to a new downturn. There's no double dip recession ahead.
So in terms of trusting and having confidence that the demand will continue to rise, I think people should trust it.
CHETRY: Is there an argument to be made that some conservatives say you don't have to do anything and we will -- eventually the business cycle will bring this back up?
WILLIAM COHAN, CONTRIBUTOR, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: You will not hear that from me. Maybe some would say that. I think we have an economists recovery here. I don't think we have a recovery down on the ground floor where people are hurting. You heard the report from Youngstown, Ohio.
I continue to be very worried about this recovery. It seems very haphazard to me and very random and not sustainable yet. We have a very fragile situation.
As Diane was saying, if people are saving but not getting rewarded for that savings, they are getting zero interests on the savings, and all the money is going to the banks who can loan it out at a profit and make huge money.
So the top, yes, the banks are getting lots of money, but how about the rest of us?
ACHUTHAN: We were cutting three quarter of a million jobs a month at the beginning of 2009. Now we are not cutting. We're adding. That's what you're going to see. That's a huge swing in the jobs market.
And then let's look at some of the anecdotal evidence around in the stores. Apple came out the other day and reported a one-third increase in the volume of sales. So it's not one rich guy on Wall Street who bought a lot of iPods. There is a lot of people buying stuff.
BRADY: And one of the big dilemmas I think that this government has to deal with is the quality of jobs coming back. If you look at hiring, there is a lot of contract jobs, you are seeing wages go down. People who were making $110,000 may find a job but will be offered $85,000.
CHETRY: You brought this up as well, you pointed to Youngstown. What is the federal government supposed to do in an area where, as Carol has told us, manufacturing jobs have been lost, the industries that employ people are simply gone. What does the government do?
COHAN: It's hard. But as Diane was referring to, this idea of retraining people, giving people an opportunity to do something. I think so many jobs have been lost in the heartland related to auto industries and other industries that seem to have moved away from America. People need to be retrained and they need to believe that they can do something else and learn how to do something else. Repurpose themselves -- it's very important. And that kind of training can be done.
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC ANALYST: That won't happen this year, ok? That's just not going to happen this year.
COHAN: A journey of a thousand miles starts with single step.
ACHUTHAN: All right we are going.
CHETRY: And did we miss those steps because in 2009 there was such a focus on health care?
COHAN: Yes, 2009 was the year of health care and perhaps to the detriment of everything else that was going on. That why, I think he's talking jobs so much now because he's focused so much on health care and it may not come to anything.
ACHUTHAN: Now look, I mean, 2009, was -- you were still dealing with the massive cutting from the recession. That's what was going on. It's not about if the agenda was here or the agenda was there, it's the business cycle.
And I would like to know -- I know that we have a fantasy that somehow the government can control the business cycle, absolutely not. It's been tried for a century, it hasn't worked. The business cycle is much more powerful than Washington.
COHAN: Yes, I am not sure I'm buying this business cycle. Honestly, this recession...
ACHUTHAN: Well, you see this is the problem...
COHAN: Now, let me finish this is the...
ACHUTHAN: ...this is the problem.
COHAN: ...let me finish this is a recession that was started in a square mile of Manhattan by Wall Street banks who took too many risks with other peoples' money and this did not have to happen.
ACHUTHAN: It's not -- I'm not saying -- well, look, recessions always happen, all right? And...
COHAN: Not this one. Not this severity. They don't have to happen this way.
ACHUTHAN: Wall Street has goofed up before and they're going to goof up again. Even no matter what you do, it's going to happening again. And there will be another recovery, again. Otherwise we'd always be in recession, right?
CHETRY: Will there be another humongous bailout? DIANE BRADY, SENIOR EDITOR, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK: I think that's one of the big issues and I think where we did lose steam was the opportunity for financial regulation to stop this from happening again.
COHAN: Yes.
BRADY: And I think the second thing is the real anger over the bonuses on Wall Street. There is no question they should have taken stronger steps to make sure that at the very least those people were appearing to share in the blame.
CHETRY: We'll he's -- the president is promising tough talk now on that. So we'll see where it goes.
BRADY: Very much so.
CHETRY: But we have to leave there. I thank all of you for being with us on the panel this morning. Thanks so much -- John.
BRADY: Thank you.
COHAN: Thank you.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Winter storm alert out there. Travel delays likely. Our Jacqui Jeras is watching all of the extreme weather across the country. She'll join us with information you need to know coming up next.
Forty-seven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning, Las Vegas to those of you who are either still awake or just getting up. It's cloudy with 46 degrees outside right now. Later today, sunny but it's not going to be very warm at all, only a high of 58.
CHETRY: I hope we're going to cry for them. That's probably one of the nicest parts of the nation today.
ROBERTS: I would think yes. If you take a shot kind of -- over our shoulder here a little bit, you will see we have two pictures, we got on the right hand side Jacqui Jeras who's at the weather center and on the left hand side we got a picture of Columbus Circle outside where...
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's snowing.
ROBERTS: Yes, we've got some snow on the ground there. Jacqui, how widespread is this going to be and is it going to cause some delays?
JERAS: You know, I don't think it's going to do too much today. I think it's going to make the roadway slick and you are going to have a few delays at the airport but it's not going to be a lot of heavy snow, maybe an inch-ish for snowfall today. And we could even warm up enough this afternoon that it could change over to a little bit of light rain.
You could see the flurries; it's pretty light. It's not a lot to complain about at least not compared to what they are seeing across parts of the south today.
Take a look at the radar picture and yes, we've got snow coming down in Albuquerque. We've got the icy conditions in Amarillo, that's going to change over to snow here within the next couple of hours. And winter storm warnings are posted all across this area. Oklahoma City starting to get that freezing rain especially on the north and western side of town.
Emergency disaster proclamation has been declared by the governor here for the entire state, all 77 counties, because we could see anywhere between a quarter of an inch to an inch of that ice and that is going to bring down those power lines as well.
The northeast there you can see that snow which continues to come down, Boston, Hartford and down towards New York City is going to see it. We think mostly just some sprinkles into the Washington, D.C. area. But that cold front is coming through guys, so in addition to that snow, watch for those temperatures to start plummeting as well. They're going to be down in the 20s for highs tomorrow.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we will bundle up. We have nothing to complain about, they are getting seven feet there in Colorado right now.
ROBERTS: Yes, but if it falls in the mountains, that's fabulous.
JERAS: With skiers...
ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely.
CHETRY: All right, Jacqui thanks.
JERAS: And that's where Rob is today.
CHETRY: Yes, because I know he's doing lots of research for...
JERAS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Do you think he had advance knowledge that it was going to snow?
JERAS: Perhaps.
CHETRY: I don't know maybe he heard the forecast from Jacqui. All right.
Well still ahead, we're going to be talking about a real miracle taking place in Haiti. Fifteen days after the earthquake, a French team pulls a 16-year-old girl out of the rubble alive. We're going to be joined by Sanjay Gupta, he's going to give us some medical update on the teen and talk about how she was able to stay alive.
Its 52 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
It's hard to imagine how someone could be trapped in the rubble of an earthquake for 15 days and live to tell about it, but it happened.
CHETRY: A 16-year-old Haitian girl found buried in concrete by a French rescue team yesterday was pulled out alive. Let's bring in our chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, still live in Port-au- Prince. And Sanjay tell us about her condition when she was pulled out and her prognosis now.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And it's extraordinary no matter how you look at it. She was very weak as you might imagine. She had -- there were parts of her body that had not moved, so she was developing this thing known as contractures where the arms are sort of fixed in place. She had weak vital signs according to the rescuers and the doctors who cared for her afterwards.
But she also responded very well to fluids. She was able to talk. She seemed coherent, able to describe and tell her name, for example, where she was from. All those obviously good signs in terms of how her brain and mind tolerated this prolonged -- being trapped for over two weeks.
So I think her prognosis is prognosis is pretty good.
There are sort of two big questions. She had a lot of injuries to her leg. Did she have significant crush injury? Will that leg be able to be saved? And also just the emotional injury of being trapped for that long, her sense of reality, what is and what is not. The types of counseling she's going to need afterwards are very significant as well.
But as far as survival goes, good prognosis.
ROBERTS: Sanjay, more broadly there in Port-au-Prince and Haiti in general. Is food and other aid getting to those who need it most?
GUPTA: It's significantly if not exponentially better than it was a week ago which was better than the week before that. We have about 160 planes every day at the air strip now.
You remember, John, we were talking about for sometime that planes were having a hard time landing and it was disorganized. It has gotten a lot better so that aid is getting in.
There're still going to be some challenges. One of them is tents. You have a lot of people who are still displaced. And over the next few months -- really starting in May -- rainy season is going to begin. They say there's going to be hundreds of thousands of tents still necessary for people here in Port-au-Prince alone and certainly in some of the outlying areas.
And also water. On average, in these types of conditions, a person -- a single person needs a gal of water to drink, and the people need about two to three gallons of water to live. So you are talking anywhere from four to five gallons people need it every single -- person every day. How are they going to get all that water in long- term is going to be tough.
Before the earthquake, only about half the people in this country had access to clean water. Going forward, it's going to be interesting to see how that develops. Are they going to improve the water infrastructure or bring in more water, it's unclear.
ROBERTS: Big challenges still ahead.
Sanjay Gupta for us in Port-au-Prince this morning; doc, thanks so much.
It's now 3 minutes to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: That's going to do it for us. Thanks so much for joining us. We will see you back here tomorrow for more "American Morning". Meanwhile, continue the conversation on today's stories by going to our blog, cnn.com/amFix.
ROBERTS: The news continues now on CNN in the "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips. Hi Kyra.
