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American Morning
Targeting American Terrorists; Tea Party Showdown; Petition Calling for Televised Debates Between U.S. Political Parties; Shark Valley Showcases Alligators; Helping New Orleans Bounce Back
Aired February 04, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It's Thursday, February 4th. I'm Christine Romans, sitting in for John Roberts this morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Good to have you with us this morning. John's on the mend.
I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
A license to kill. The director of National Intelligence saying for the first time publicly that the US has the right to kill US citizens overseas if they're involved in terrorist activities. We are live at the Pentagon with these latest developments. ROMANS: CNN putting a spotlight on the growing political movement that has Democrats and Republicans in its crosshairs. The first ever National Tea Party Convention opened. Just ahead, we'll look at how the grassroots revolt could help decide a key Florida Senate race.
Also, new troubles this morning for Toyota and the millions of people who drive those cars. The automaker now admitting it discovered a design flaw last month in the braking system of its hot- selling hybrid Prius.
Now, safety experts are questioning Toyota's plans to fix millions of recalled cars for the faulty gas pedal problem. They say an electrical malfunction and not those pedals could be the real problem.
But first, there is new information this morning on America's war with potential terrorists. The director of national intelligence yesterday telling lawmakers that the U.S. has the authority to takeout Americans overseas who present a direct threat to our security.
Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon.
And this is a sensitive issue. So, explain the circumstances and sort of the context surrounding these words?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kiran, this is an extraordinary public admission, before television cameras on Capitol Hill, right out there on the table, the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, yesterday, telling Congress that the U.S. intelligence community has the authority to target and kill American citizens abroad if they are involved in terrorism activities that threaten Americans.
Best thing to do. Let's get right to what Admiral Blair had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS BLAIR, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community, if that direct action -- we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that. The reason I went this far in open session is I just don't want other Americans who are watching to think that we are careless about endangering -- in fact, we're not careless about endangering lives at all, but we, especially, are not careless about endangering American lives as we try to carry out the policies to protect most of the country and I think we ought to go into details in closed session.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: You know, Director Blair, who is a retired Navy admiral, went on to say what they are not doing is targeting Americans for free speech, targeting them specifically if they threaten other Americans, if they threaten the United States.
So, who might be topping the list right now? Well, it's not publicly acknowledged, but privately, many administration officials say they are really looking to deal with Anwar al-Awlaki. He, of course, is the American born Yemeni cleric who is said to have been involved with the Christmas Day bomber Farouk Abdulmutallab, as well as having communicated with the suspected shooter at Fort Hood.
No one is saying that they are targeting him to kill him, but he is certainly one of the next American citizens abroad that the U.S. intelligence community wants to deal with, Kiran.
CHETRY: And they believe he's hiding in Yemen right now, correct?
STARR: Correct. Absolutely.
CHETRY: And if U.S. were to take action, what government agency would take the lead in this?
STARR: Well, you know, first of all, it would be a decision based on information from the intelligence community that some American citizen is posing this threat and needs to be dealt with.
How can it be carried out? The U.S. intelligence community, the CIA flies drone overseas with missiles. They have used them many, many time to target terror suspects. The U.S. military also has a very significant covert capability in its Special Forces and its Special Operations Forces to deal with this kind of situation, Kiran.
CHETRY: Wow. All right. Great -- new information for us this morning and a very interesting story that's sure to spark controversy. Barbara Starr for us this morning -- thank you.
STARR: Sure.
ROMANS: A new twist this morning in the case of the American missionaries jailed in Haiti for trying to take 33 children to the Dominican Republic. The group says they did in the name of Jesus Christ and say they thought their paperwork was in order. But Dominican authorities are rejecting that claim. They say they warned the group their so-called mercy mission was illegal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLOS CASTILLO, DOMINICAN CONSUL GENERAL TO HAITI: I warn her, and I say as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you're going to get in trouble because they're going to accuse you because you have the intent to cross the border without the proper papers and they're going to accuse of kids trafficking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, we're on camera now. What's the situation?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The Americans could find out as early as today if they will face charges or be released from jail.
For every orphan living the chaos of Haiti, thousands are left behind. So, who will be there to help them?
Join us as we look for answer on the "AC 360" special series "Children of Haiti." That's at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
CHETRY: And you can add the hot-selling Prius now to the list of Toyota models with safety issues. More than 100 owners have registered complaints about the Prius' brakes in Toyota's popular hybrid. And this morning, Toyota admitting it discovered a design flaw last month but never made that public. Toyota says the problem is not serious enough for the Prius to be recalled.
All that coming after an alarming message to Toyota owners yesterday from the Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it and take it to Toyota dealer because they believe they have the fix for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: LaHood later claimed that he misspoke and that he was just trying to advice concerned Toyota owners to bring their cars in for repairs as soon as possible.
ROMANS: OK. It's two things people wary of big brother, never really wanted to hear together, Google and the NSA. The two are now reportedly teaming up, but not how you might think. "The Washington Post" says Google has reportedly asked the National Security Agency for help warding off cyber attacks.
Google also wants the U.S. government to investigate an attack on email accounts that may have been launched from China. As for the careful balance between privacy and national security, sources tell the paper the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing American users' searchers or your e-mail accounts.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it's six minutes past the hour.
Also new this morning, progress. Check this out. We're going to show you one World Trade Center, or you may know it as the Freedom Tower. There we go.
The authority is saying that the future skyscraper is now 200 feet above street level. And that's really an important milestone. Rebuilding on the site has set countless delays and ran into miles of red tape, but the 104-story skyscraper is slated to be completed by 2013.
ROMANS: Right now, the National Prayer Breakfast underway in Washington. The annual event takes place on the first Thursday of February every year. You are looking at a live picture of that event. President Obama is there and expected to speak. We'll, of course, be monitoring this and let you know what he says.
CHETRY: And Scott Brown scheduled to be sworn into office today. The Republican senator-elect from Massachusetts will assume the seat once held by the late Ted Kennedy. Later this morning, the governor of Massachusetts is expected to certify Brown the winner of last month's special election. And then clears away for a swearing-in ceremony that's expected to begin at 5:00 Eastern Time.
And they talked about whether or not there would be some sort of delay in this. But it appears that the certification is going through.
ROMANS: All right. And Rob Marciano in the weather center is going to tell us about what we have in store for the end of the week, and a long weekend. It looks like there could be some snow, some precipitation, as they say in the business.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, plenty of that. Snow north and rain south, couple of things coming together. The cold air is to the north and the moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic, and that is going to spell some trouble.
Here it is on the map. Big storm that will be developing across the gulf states. Right now, it's kind of split. But it will come together.
Some snow to the north, some rain to the south, and some of this rainfall is deep and the extent of the atmosphere, New Orleans to Montgomery spreading into Atlanta. So, if you're traveling through Atlanta or Houston today, you're going to have problems. And traveling through D.C., Baltimore or Philly tomorrow and Saturday, big problems. We may very well see a repeat performance of what we saw in December, which was snowfall amounts in excess of 20 inches. That would be a doozy.
All right. We'll have much more in about 30 minutes, guys.
CHETRY: Yes. All right. Same as those who have been staying to the south, when you live up and down the east coast lately. So, we dodged a bullet up here in New York for the most part.
MARCIANO: So far.
ROMANS: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, she will be able to make another "Snowbama" on the White House lawn.
(INAUDIBLE)
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: ... responsibility is what the White House wants.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Rob.
A spectacular image from space. Take a look at what NASA captured for the very first time with the Hubble telescope. Scientists say -- wow -- scientists say it's likely a cosmic collision of two asteroids somewhere between Mars and Jupiter, I'd say between Mars and Jupiter. It looks like that to me.
They are each traveling at 11,000 miles an hour, and that's five times faster than a speeding bullet.
CHETRY: Who knew that the Hubble had that type of stop action capability? That's a lot of action.
ROMANS: Very cool. Very cool.
CHETRY: Really cool.
Well, it is party time -- tea party time, that is. They're on a roll after putting big support, big money behind Scott Brown's upset win in Massachusetts. Now, the tea partiers were looking at other races, Republican or Democrat. We'll explain -- coming up.
Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Eleven minutes past the hour right now. Time for an "A.M. Original."
And today, that national tea party convention kicks off in Nashville. It's being billed as a coming-together of a lot of grassroots organizations, groups that have cropped up. About a year ago, people -- many of them fed up with the bailouts, fed up with big deficits and not happy with health care either, a few who feel that they were abandoned by their own political parties.
And all this week, CNN is cutting through the noise, taking a comprehensive look at the real issues that brought people here in a special series "Welcome to the Tea Party."
ROMANS: "Welcome to the Tea Party." The grassroots rebellion impacting a key Senate race in Florida. A Republican candidate heavily favored by the tea party crowd is giving the state's most powerful politician a run for his money in the primary.
Jim Acosta following that in the second part of our special series.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
You know, Marco Rubio, who is really turning this race upside- down down in Florida, has been referred to as the Republican Barack Obama, not because he's taking on the Democrats, but because he's taking on a fellow Republican, and the governor down in Florida, Charlie Crist. And the big issue in this race comes down to one thing: a hug.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: We know it's important that we pass the stimulus package.
ACOSTA (voice-over): For Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist, it's the hug that just won't let go. His embrace of the president and of the stimulus program at this town hall meeting last year could cost this once rising GOP star a shot at the U.S. Senate seat.
MARCO RUBIO (R), SENATE CANDIDATE: I have been hearing about these tea parties for a while...
ACOSTA: Meet Marco Rubio. He's challenging Crist for the GOP nomination for that Senate seat and a darling of the tea party movement. Rubio has turned the hug into a fund-raising gift that keeps on giving.
(on camera): Would you give President Obama a hug?
RUBIO: Why? Why would I -- depending -- I don't even know. Why would I hug someone I don't know?
ACOSTA: Well, Charlie Crist has gotten himself in a lot of trouble for hugging President Obama.
RUBIO: Ultimately, you know, that gets a lot of attention. But what he really got in trouble for is supporting a plan that is helping to bankrupt this country.
What I find at events like this is a growing number of Americans who have never been involved in politics before. I bet you that's a lot of you.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Rubio takes his message of smaller government and lower taxes to tea party rallies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a great awakening.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop the spending, it's an unnecessary thing.
ACOSTA: And his YouTube page features tea party activists venting their anger at Washington. Polls show Rubio has closed a 30- gap and just might win the party primary.
(on camera): Would you be the first tea party senator elected?
RUBIO: Well, I'm running -- I'm running as a Republican.
ACOSTA: Despite the word "party," it's not a party -- political party, that is.
RUBIO: It's not a political party.
ACOSTA: Crist, by contrast, no tea party animal.
(on camera): Have you ever sit down with any tea party activist and talk to them? Have you talked to any of them over the phone?
CRIST: Not really. No, I haven't. You know that...
ACOSTA: Not once?
CRIST: No, not once. Happy to. I probably have and don't know it.
ACOSTA (voice-over): For groups like the Tea Party Express, there's no contest.
JOE WIERZBICKI, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: You want to know why there's anger with the Republican Party, Republicans embracing massive tax- and-spend policies. No, that's not the Republican Party supposed to be about. And that's what Charlie Crist did.
ACOSTA: Tea party groups say millions of independents, Republicans and even some former Democrats are ready to take down some of the biggest names in politics, from Democratic Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to Republican John McCain.
But Democrats say, all that in-fighting between Crist and Rubio actually presents an opportunity.
JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'd take either one of them, as long as they're wounded and limping into the general election.
ACOSTA: Crist, who has a 50 percent job approval rating, is not backing down from a tea party fight. He defends the stimulus as a job-saver and notes Rubio has stated he, too, would have accepted funds from the program.
CRIST: About 20,000 teachers would be out of work today in my state. I can't, in good conscience, look them in the eye and say, you know, "You and your family are going to be without a breadwinner." People have to eat.
ACOSTA: He's gambling conservatives will come around to find conventional wisdom in his own party, Crist met with President Obama for another stimulus event last week.
(on camera): Did you get any feedback from your fellow Republicans in the state that maybe you shouldn't be there when the President landed in temp?
CRIST: A lot actually.
ACOSTA: They were telling you don't do it.
CRIST: Yes, quite a few people. I got a lot of advice
ACOSTA: They shook hands for 27 seconds.
CRIST: I think people really want. They are honestly sort of tired of the bickering that they see coming out of Washington. I think that's part of the change that they want to see and it's part of the reason why I am running for the United States Senate. I think we need more civility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Crist is gambling that civility will trump anger in the August 24th primary battle between he and Mark Rubio coming up later this year.
And speaking of just how personal this race is getting down in Florida, Jim Greer, the chair of the Republican Party in that state actually stepped down because when he voiced his support for Charlie Crist the Tea Party Movement just went nuts and decided Jim Greer could no longer keep that position. And when I talked to him about this, he said to me, he said Jim, when did I stop being Conservative?
ROMANS: How does imagery and perception, I mean a handshake or hug to have to carry so much political weight. It kind of shows you just how interesting the dynamics are right now or just how charged the dynamics are right now.
ACOSTA: Absolutely, yes, there was a time when Republicans and Democrats could shake hands, or you know, you hear stories from folks who have been in this business for a long time about how tip O'Neal and Ronald Reagan used to, you know, have drinks and tell Irish jokes together, you know, down at the White House and cut a deal and balance the budget.
CHETRY: Right but especially with the stature of the office, I mean this is a governor of a state and the President of the United States.
ACOSTA: Right.
CHETRY: You know, it doesn't matter what party you are in, there's a certain protocol.
ACOSTA: We are at such a partisan time right now that even that can make you damaged goods in the eyes of some folks in the movement. And the question for voters coming up in this mid terms election is, is that right? Is that where we should be going as a country?
ROMANS: Oh the good old days of getting together, bipartisan balancing a budget - oh wait, we don't balance budgets anymore, either. I've done that for a while. There you go.
CHETRY: Hey something to talk about. Thanks Jim. Well have much more of our special coverage by the way, coming up. You know, just talking about this, and we are going to be talking a little bit more with David Corn, Washington Borough Chief of mother Jones, and columnist for Politicsdaily.com. And Mark McKinnon, former McCain advisor and columnist for the Daily Beast.com who says it was a very telling moment and good for both the Democrats and the Republicans when the President got together with Republican Leers and answered some questions.
Very, very interesting stuff last Friday. Well their new website is demanding more from the President and Republican leaders and Congress, and a new era of dialogue. And we're going to be talking about that.
ROMANS: And we are going to talk about a new era hopefully after the last era of the last ten years and we had big losers on Wall Street, big losers in companies that have lost a lot in market value over the past decade. Stephanie Elam at this half, "Minding Your Business" about the losers in the past ten years and what it pretends for the ten.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty minutes past the hour. Stephanie Elam, "Minding Your Business" this morning, she joins us now.
Beyonce won a ton of Grammy's but - her stock is rising.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Her stock is - I think her stock is solid. We are not worried about hers over the last decade. Unfortunately, for some really large companies, not the same thing. Because remember that whole tech bubble that we saw at the end of the '90s and 2000, it was great. Times were lovely, everyone was buying houses. It was rosy and then everything just fell out and now these stocks have just taken a hit. So let's show you some - really took a hit over the last decade. Starting off with Cisco systems. And we are talking about the biggest market value losers. Well look at this, they lost $425 billion that's after the bubble popped. The tech bubble. They are still would be the top internet gear provider, but those days of having a market cap of $557 billion, history dude, totally history.
Let's go onto the next one, General Electric lost $423 billion. They also benefited from that boom that came around in the late '90's and they've lost 70 percent of their value during the decade.
And then Intel lost $400 billion and in case you couldn't tell they were also impacted by the tech bubble bursting as well.
A lot of these companies when you take a look at it, they hit their peak in August of 2000 so you could really see that's right when the bubble was bursting there.
And the last one we'll take a look at, Microsoft, losing $390 billion. They are still though the second largest company behind Exxon Mobile here in the United States. But it just shows you how rough this decade was for so many companies, and of course for people who are investing in these companies, it also played out a bit in their portfolios.
ROMANS: I remember still vividly calling John Chambers in Cisco when they became, I think, the world's largest company for a moment.
ELAM: For like two seconds.
ROMANS: At one moment it was so big and it was just like wow, this tech company did not even exist ten years ago, now it is suddenly one of the biggest companies in the world, and then --
ELAM: Yes it was like amazing. And you know, I grew up in Silicon Valley, that was a really big deal because all these companies take over. But of course, you want to see the rest of the losers there that are mentioned, you can always head to cnnmoney.com, they have a nice write up of the companies that really had a rough decade. As well.
ROMANS: I am pretty sure the parent companies of the network must be on that list somewhere.
ELAM: Yes, it's not on the list - it's not on the top ten but yes.
CHETRY: Let's look for a better decade ahead.
ROMANS: Yes.
ELAM: If you go down you have to come back up right?
ROMANS: Here, here.
(CROSSTALK) CHETRY: All right, thank you so much Stephanie. All right, Toyota hits another bump in the road. Is it an electronics problem? Is it just simply the unexplained acceleration problem? What is behind it, and are the fixes being prescribed today the right fixes for all of these drivers?
ROMANS: Right and then add onto that some new concerns about breaking problems as well with the Prius. So we are going to follow all the way with Toyota.
Still ahead, bloggers and politicos launching an online campaign, they want a monthly question and answer session with the President and the big GOP leaders as well. Is it a pipedream, we're going to talk more about it, 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning, 25 minutes past the hour now.
You know millions of Americans drive Toyotas, and today many of them are asking the same question is it safe to get behind the wheel of my car. Toyota is confirming the hot-selling Prius hybrid has a design flaw in the breaking system, claiming though a recall is not necessary.
ROMANS: Meanwhile Toyota service centers are simply jammed, customers with recalled cars trying to get sticky accelerator pedals repairs, but some experts are saying it's an electrical malfunction, and maybe not those pedals on their own is the real problem. Deborah Feyerick is live in Los Angeles this morning. And Deb, you got the story off a Michigan family, one of many families simply, frankly, looking for answers after losing a loved one.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know Christine, even though Toyota says that it has found the solution to sudden acceleration problems, there is now mounting criticism that Toyota may not be acknowledging a serious electronic problem in its throttling system. The federal system that monitors car safety now says it's taking a fresh look at that possibility.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Driving this road in Flint Michigan. Lilia Alberto is haunted by her mother's last moments. The fear of the 76 year old woman must have felt desperately trying to control her 2005 Toyota Camry as it barreled down a quiet street at 80 miles per hour.
LILIA ALBERTO, DAUGHTER OF CRASH VICTIM: And the car went airborne and it was going 80 miles per hour and hit the tree on the top and it just went down. She died instantly.
FEYERICK: Guadelope Alberto, by all accounts was an extremely careful driver in good health. ALBERTO: That was the first thing that I knew that something had to be wrong because my mother would never cross a street, because of the two-way traffic.
FEYERICK: Witnesses say the car seemed to speed out of control. Nobody knows why. But it fits the pattern of thousands of incidents of unintended acceleration involving Toyota vehicles. After recent state of high profile accidents, Toyota recalled millions of cars, not including the model driven by Guadelope Alberto. They blamed the floor mats and sticky gas pedals. Yet a growing number of automotive experts and class action lawyers like Richard McCune say that explanation just doesn't fit.
RICHARD MCCUNE, CLASS ACTION ATTORNEY: What I hear over and over and over again, I'm driving down the road and my car just takes off on me. I apply the brakes, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. That's the pattern that we have seen.
FEYERICK (on camera): So unequivocally, that these recalls simply do not get to the core of the problems that Toyota has.
(voice-over): Safety analysts, Sean Kane did more than 2000 in acceleration incidents involving Toyota and believes the root of the problem lies in the electronic throttle system which controls the speed of the car.
SEAN KANE, SAFETY RESEARCH AND STRATEGIES: These are computer- guided systems, and we all know that electronics fail, they do fail and they will fail. And the problem with Toyota, is they have not built enough fail safe devices into the cars to ensure that the drivers get control of the vehicle when a failure happens.
FEYERICK: During a press conference in Japan this week a Toyota executive ruled out any software or electronic issue with the accelerator.
SHINICHI SASAKI, TOYOTA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT (translator): For the electronic control unit we cannot could not come across any case where we found that there was a misfunction in this control system.
FEYERICK: McCune says Toyota's recalls are disturbing in their limitations because they don't apply to all makes and models that have allegedly experienced the acceleration problem '05 Camry Guadelope Alberto was driving.
(on camera): Based on your evidence, you're suggesting that there are cars on the road that right now should be recalled?
MCCUNE: I think that the recalls cover less than half of the models and model years that need to be part of this recall.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Toyota says it basis its recalls on defects that have been identified and not solely on reports of unintended acceleration. Late Wednesday McCune filed a motion for a preliminary injunction demanding that Toyota recall all vehicle models allegedly affected. And also install a brake override system that would stop a car that's accelerating out of control.
MCCUNE: While everybody tries to figure this out including Toyota, I presume, we need a system so the sudden accelerations do not become deadly accidents. And that's what the break override system does.
FEYERICK: A system that possibly could have saved the life of Guadalupe Alberto.
LILIA ALBERTO, DAUGHTER OF CRASH VICTIM: Once in a while, I come by this just to say a prayer, or just to come and look and remember the place where she died. But, it's very painful. It's still very vivid in my mind and my heart.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Toyota announces all new cars in 2011 will be programmed with the break override safety system. In fact, in November during the floor mat recall, Toyota actually said it would install the brake override system in millions of Camrys, Avalons, and Lexus models.
Toyota did not call it a safety measure. They said it was an extra measure of confidence for drivers. Christine?
ROMANS: All right, Deb Feyerick, thanks so much, Deb.
CHETRY: We are crossing the half hour and a look at our other top stories this morning.
A senior intelligence official says that a top Taliban operative is believed to have been killed by an American missile strike in Pakistan. A government official telling the Associated Press that the terror leader may have been hit by a U.S. predator drone last month.
The terror leader has taken responsibility for numerous attacks, including the deadly blast inside of a CIA base in Afghanistan last year.
ROMANS: The White House is announcing President Obama will not attend the winter Olympics in Vancouver. Instead, Vice President Joe Biden will lead the U.S. delegation at the opening ceremonies next week. The president's decision easing concerns over security, which is costing Canada nearly $900 million.
CHETRY: And California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking some jabs at other states while promoting California. He claimed that Florida is "for old people," and "There is no one screaming I can't wait to get to Iowa." Folks in Iowa not too happy with that comment, including Christine.
"The Sioux City Journal" ran the headline "From Musclehead to Knucklehead."
There is a growing call this morning from unlike minded political pros and for the president and Congress to air their differences in regular televised question and answer sessions. And the group is using President Obama's exchange with Republican leaders last week as a model.
Two people behind the move are with us in Washington, David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief of "Mother Jones" and columnist at PoliticsDaily.com, and also Mark McKinnon, former adviser to John McCain and a columnist at thedailybeast.com. Welcome to the both of you.
MARK MCKINNON, COLUMNIST, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: Good morning.
DAVID CORN, COLUMNIST, POLITICSDAILY.COM: Thanks for having us.
CHETRY: And Mark, I was reading your blog, you column again today. you are an original endorser of the petition that you are circulating out there to get this to happen, this televised event on Friday where we saw the president answering and asking questions of GOP leadership.
It seemed like a refreshing change from what seems to be the spin cycle in Washington. Do you think it's realistic that it can happen all the time.
MCKINNON: It's such a rate and refreshing example of a win-win in Washington. The president campaigned on the idea of trying to change the tone in Washington, and I think he did more in one hour last week than he has done in his entire presidency to leach the partisan poison out of the well in Washington.
And there has been a tremendous reaction. We have this demandquestiontime.com petition going around, and it's very clear that voters in America think that this is the kind of leadership they want in Washington, where time really froze, as David told me earlier, and people felt like they were getting a real dialogue from the leadership in Washington. So we would love to see more of it.
CHETRY: And David, a lot of people are saying this is one of the most partisan and bitter times right now in Washington. You have been around a long time. Do you feel that this is a very unique time, or do we talk about this in cycles regardless of who is president or in Congress?
CORN: I think Washington and the nation has long had stretches of very, very vicious partisan moments, and I'm not sure how different it is now. But what is different is we have the cable news cycle, the Internet news cycle, the twitter news cycle, and things do go by much faster.
I think that does tend to push people towards extremes in terms of rhetoric when it comes to political conversations. We've never faced more profound challenges in our nation and in our world. And so we really need a high level of policy and political debate.
I think that's what we saw last Friday. And I think it forced both the president and the Republican leaders to really be at the top of their game. This is an instance when competition works. You have the leaders of the opposition in Congress and the president getting in front of the public and mixing it up and trying to convince the public that they have the better answers and that we could all watch and we could decide.
And it was, as Mark said, a refreshing moment. It seemed like that whole cycle of Internet talk and cable discussion that you and I are part of, and it's fun in a lot of ways, and it's good, but it sort of stopped for a moment and we slowed down, and there was real consideration of the issues.
CHETRY: Actually, and let me just stop you for a one second. Just so people know what we're talking about, I want to run a clip of a little snippet that happened on Friday. This is the president getting into it a little bit with the congressman from Texas, Jeb Hensarling. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JEB HENSARLING (R), TEXAS: Will that new budget, like your old budget, triple the national debt and continue to take us down the path of increasing the cost of government to almost 25 percent of our economy? That's the question, Mr. President.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Jim, with all due respect, I just have to take the last question of how it's very hard to have the kind of bipartisan work that we are going to do, because the whole question was structured as a talking point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There you go. A lot of people thought the president really shined there, Mark, and that perhaps some of the Republicans want a bit of a rematch. Does the format have the potential to favor the president, who also did this on the campaign trail?
MCKINNON: There's no question that it was a really bold and courageous move on the president's part. But if you watch the whole program, there were some great questions from the Republicans, they were overall very diplomatic, and it was a great exchange of ideas between both the Republicans and the president.
So the viewers who watched got a great sense of where the differences are in the issues, and they got to hear a complete airing of the differences between the political parties. And it was really a terrific example of Washington coming together to debate the issues.
CHETRY: Speaking of political parties, and David I want to get your take on the tea party movement. A lot of people are fed up with both members of the parties. We talked about this tea party convention is getting under way today in Nashville.
What do you think of the movement, and do you think it's a threat to either party when it comes to getting candidates elected? CORN: Well, this convention that is coming together, or not coming together actually this week in Nashville is a bit of a plop, and the only thing that is happening is people that can afford $600 tickets in order to pay Sarah Palin a $115,000 speaker fee will be eating steak and lobster. It's not the heart of the movement.
What's really happening is what you see in the race down in Florida that you just had a spot on where you have tea party activists putting a lot of pressure on the Republican candidates to be far more conservative than many of them would like to be, and that may threaten them down the road in general elections.
I am all for grassroots activism, and I think that's great. But I think the tea party movement is more of an impulse now than an actual movement.
We have Ron Paul's son running in Kentucky, Graham Paul, but if he is adopting the foreign policy of his father, which is to be against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, that may not fit well with people like Sarah Palin, who are also tea party darlings. So there is a lot for the tea party to work out.
CHETRY: And that's one of the things. They say it is sort of nebulous right now, there is not necessarily a leader here. Mark, what do you think, though? As a political movement, are they having an impact?
MCKINNON: They're having a huge impact. Two things, one, the movement is real. There's tremendous energy out there, and a lot of anger and frustration that the tea party reflects.
And number two, as David suggested, there is no central organizing focus of the party, so you have a lot of disparate things happening around the country that don't have any really command and control. And as David pointed out, this thing in Florida is problematic because there is nobody really dictating the structure that makes a lot of sense.
CHETRY: Interesting take from both of you on all these issues. David Corn and Mark McKinnon, thanks so much.
MCKINNON: Thank you.
CORN: Thanks for having us.
CHETRY: We would love for you to go to our blog, share your comments, CNN.com/amfix.
ROMANS: We are talking about some wild gators in Florida, reptiles, the real ones, living everywhere, and a little 15-mile walk, a path where you can take a walk on the wild side. That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. If you are not a fan of big teeth and long tails and scales, this may not be the vacation destination for you. We are talking about a park in the Florida Everglades where there is nothing, nothing between you and 800-pound alligators.
So who of course did we send this to check this out? None other than our very own John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He knows you are there. Take his picture. He is cool with that, all 800 pounds of him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm pretty freaked out. I don't want to get any closer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just can't believe we are not warned before we come in here.
ZARRELLA: The reaction from visitors is standard fair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of them don't believe the alligators are alive. They think we planted them.
ZARRELLA: From upstate New York, Dough and Caroline Finkey don't see gators too often, never this up close and personal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What keeps us from going up and petting them?
ZARRELLA (on camera): Common sense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know that. But not everybody has that, like me.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): This is Florida's Everglades National Park, a spot called "Shark Valley," the name totally misleading. It's home to wading birds, water birds, roosting birds, and apparently very friendly birds.
HELMUT KUEGEL, TOURIST: The birds in Europe are much higher. You cannot come as close like here in the States. I cannot understand why.
ZARRELLA: But what Shark Valley is most noted for is it's alligators, hundreds of them. Every few feet along the 15-mile trail, a there is a gator lazily stunning itself, fortunately, less interested in the humans than they are in it.
ZARRELLA (on camera): There is an alligator right here, literally sitting up on the rocks and in the bushes.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Alligators apparently do grow on trees here.
ZARRELLA (on camera): Are they scary?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
ZARRELLA: Want to get closer?
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Talk about trusting -- we stood within ten feet of a dozen gators.
ZARRELLA (on camera): Do you like it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ZARRELLA: Are you crazy, you like alligators up close?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I am crazy.
ZARRELLA: You can walk the path or bike it, which makes for a quick getaway, although there has never been an incident. Just don't get any ideas. The rules are simple, don't touch them or feed them or mess with them, just marvel at them.
John Zarrella, CNN, at Shark Valley.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Did he say "Shark Valley"? That's even funnier.
ROMANS: Yes, that is funny.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: There you go, why don't they call it Gator Alley.
ROMANS: I don't know. The whole...
CHETRY: All the Everglades is Gator Alley, right?
ROMANS: There you go, exactly.
CHETRY: Well, we want to show you a live picture right now. The National Prayer Breakfast is underway in Washington; it's a tradition every year. There you are looking at Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is speaking right now. And President Obama is expected to speak next. We're monitoring it and we'll let you know what he says.
Still ahead meanwhile, mostly sunny but it's coming before a big snow storm. Our Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather, unfortunately for many, just in time for the weekend.
Forty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Beautiful picture this morning coming to us from Nashville, Tennessee this morning. That's why we're playing R.E.M. this day. It's 34 degrees, a little bit later light rain, 45. Right now we're going to check in with our own Rob Marciano and he has the look at -- what could be a not so great weekend weather- wise. Hey, Rob.
ROMANS: Well great if you're in the toddler set and want to go sledding.
CHETRY: Yes, that's true, that's true.
MARCIANO: Exactly, it all depends on your relative perspective. If you're a snow lover and you live anywhere, from D.C. to New York City you're going to like this weekend.
If you live in the southeast, you're not necessarily going to like today because it's going to be wet and the rain will be heavy at times and there will be some wind as well. A kind of double areas of energy in the atmosphere some snow to the north and rain to the south.
I mean, the moisture field from this thing extends all the way from Nebraska to the Mexican border and now it's stretching into the Atlanta area where the rains will be increasing from Atlanta back to New Orleans throughout the day, today and eventually stretching up into the colder air of the mid-Atlantic.
So winter storm watches and warnings are posted. They will take in 10 to 20 inches of snow potentially in the D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia area and this snow line will get into the D.C. area probably around mid morning tomorrow and then begin to accumulate around lunchtime and then lasting, it looks like, right into midday Saturday.
If you're traveling today, Houston, Atlanta the problem areas maybe some freezing drizzle in Minneapolis and some gusty winds in New York. And it will be gusty, guys, on top of this, especially in the Jersey shore in the Delmar borough tomorrow of big waves as well.
I don't know how much snow is going to get to New York, but not nearly as much as D.C. If you really want to build a snowman, head to the nation's capital. Back to you guys.
CHETRY: Well, the weather man is always right, so if you say we might not get snow, we might not get snow.
MARCIANO: You won't get as much. You'll get some.
CHETRY: There you go and we really should pretend because tomorrow, isn't tomorrow National Weather Man's Day?
MARCIANO: Oh I forgot about that.
CHETRY: Yes.
MARCIANO: Yes, I will give you the address to send gifts to.
ROMANS: OK.
CHETRY: The present's already in the mail. Thanks Rob.
ROMANS: Now, let's check in with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM" for a look at what she's got ahead for us in the next hour.
CHETRY: Hey, Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh I guess, you could say it's a bit of a talker. Do you ladies play golf?
ROMANS: No.
CHETRY: No.
CHETRY: Kyra does. I know Kyra plays golf.
Because she's ruined it, it's a bit of a talker.
PHILLIPS: Yes, man you really ruined it. Rob Marciano, do you play golf? I think he plays golf.
CHETRY: He does, so he has the link.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, let me give you a couple pieces of advice if you ever decide to go out there, you know the object is to keep your head down and keep your eye on the ball, right?
Well, take a look at this. This golf ball designer thought, "Hey, I got an idea. I'm going to put pictures of Tiger Woods' mistresses on the golf balls. Creative Classics came up with this. It's called "Mistress Collection." But see this woman right here, well, you saw her briefly there. She is one of the former mistresses apparently a porn star/actress, she's not too happy that her face is on the golf ball, ladies, so we're going to talk about that coming up in the next hour or so.
ROMANS: We'll give you that it's topical Kyra, it is topical.
CHETRY: Yes and some of them are very offended by that so there you go. Kyra thank you.
PHILLIPS: That's right, OK.
ROMANS: Coming up, after the break we've got a really important story for you about a new study showing brain activity detected in some -- in a narrow class of patients that had been classified as vegetative -- people in a vegetative state -- actually finding some brain activity. It's a fascinating new study and we're going have that for you right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Time now for an "AM House Call": stories about your health. A man in a deeply unconscious state for five years has communicated with doctors using his thoughts. They say it shows the patient was not in a vegetative state as previously diagnosed. The man was asked yes or no questions and scientists used a brain scanner to determine his answers. Medical experts are calling it a game changer and it could impact the way doctor's care for coma patients.
CHETRY: Well, it has been five years since Hurricane Katrina destroyed homes, business and lives across the Gulf Coast. And to this day people in the city of New Orleans are still working to bounce back.
ROMANS: But a group of business owners devoted to their town got creative and coordinated and they're really, really helping to turn things around.
And Tom Foreman has the first in our new series of reports, "Building up America".
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along with the thousands of homes and lives Katrina took on the Gulf Coast, countless livelihoods disappeared, too. Nearly 130,000 jobs were lost around New Orleans alone as businesses crumpled and their owners fled.
MATT WISDOM, TURBOSQUID: I was born and raised here.
FOREMAN: Matt Wisdom stood firm.
WISDOM: It wasn't clear that we could return to anything that we had known before.
FOREMAN (on camera): What made you decide to stay?
WISDOM: We just decided, you know, we can't be away from it. This is the time. You either come and make it work, or leave and find a new life.
FOREMAN: Where are we now?
WISDOM: We're in the TurboSquid headquarters office in New Orleans.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But Matt's fledgling company TurboSquid, which sells 3D computer models for commercials, movies, even here on CNN, faced the same problem hundreds of others did; the town's communications, transportation, banking, and even basic civic services were in shambles.
(on camera): No one business or even hundreds of them could do anything about all of these difficulties they faced, so they got creative and they got coordinated. And a man in here knows exactly how it happened.
MICHAEL HECHT, GREATER NEW ORLEANS INC.: This storm could have destroyed this whole place, but what it really did is it gave us a chance at intense self-examination. FOREMAN (voice-over): That's Michael Hecht with Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development group. Since the storm he points out aggressive efforts to improve schools, provide tax incentives for industry and a fresh business recruiting campaign have helped keep New Orleans' unemployment rate to less than half that of many other cities.
In addition ambitious young businesses like TurboSquid are being grouped into buildings specially refurbished and made available for them at special rates to encourage interaction, sharing of information, even markets. The result?
HECHT: For every one older professional that we lost because of the storm, two younger professionals have moved in. What you are seeing here is one of the great comeback stories of our generation.
FOREMAN: At TurboSquid Matt expanded sales into the global market and used the city's reputation as an art center to draw talent to his firm.
(on camera): What have you learned here that would help other communities as they try to get through this economic hard time?
WISDOM: Some of it is to do what you're good at. It's to focus on doing one thing or very few things incredibly well and building the best team of people around you.
FOREMAN (voice-over): It has worked. Matt's staff of 35 is twice as big as it was before the storm, and the company is now the largest online vendor in the world of 3D. Not bad for a local boy who just wanted to build up his battered home and help others do the same.
Tom Foreman, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: That's going to do it for us. Glad you were with us today. We'll see you back here in AMERICAN MORNING tomorrow.
Meanwhile, you can continue today's conversation on all our stories by going to our blog, CNN.com/amFix.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks for watching everybody.
Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, ladies.
