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American Morning
Chopper Down in Afghanistan; Critical Senate Vote on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Today; Over Obama; Homeschooling In America; O'Donnell Accused of Misusing Campaign Funds; Republican Voters More Enthusiastic About Midterms Than Democratic Voters; "Wall Street" Sequel Raises Questions About Present Wall Street Behavior; Great Recession Over; Commando Weather Forecasting; Global Cost of Alzheimer's
Aired September 21, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning on this Tuesday, the 21st of September, very last day of summer. Thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
We have a lot to talk about this morning. So, let's get right to it.
We start in Afghanistan where NATO says a helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan this morning killed nine U.S. service members. It is now the deadliest year of coalition forces in Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: Perhaps the world's most controversial leader, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on deck at the United Nations this morning. And two mothers are hoping that he'll give them their sons back. How the fate of two American hikers is hanging over his appearance today.
CHETRY: And equality is the prime rib of America -- those words from a famous pop star, Lady Gaga, at a rally pushing for the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that wouldn't allow gays to serve openly in the military. The debate will be front and center. They're taking a vote in the Capitol. We'll be talking more about that.
ROBERTS: Yes. This after she said, hangar steak is the new fashion of America, right?
And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation going on right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Well, it is unfortunately a sad day when we have to say that it's the deadliest year of the war in Afghanistan. Well, that happened because of a chopper crash overnight that left nine more U.S. service members dead.
ROBERTS: Let's bring in our Jill Dougherty. She is with us this morning. She's here in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
We'll talk about Iran in just a second. But, first of all, you just recently returned from Afghanistan. Tell us what we know about this helicopter crash.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first question you would ask under the circumstances is, why did it happen? Were the insurgents the ones that shot down or did it just happen? Because, you know, helicopters are dangerous. And it looks so far as if it was an accident.
They're saying that there was not insurgent activity in the area, so that could be a good sign. The insurgents, of course, will take responsibility as they always do. Or actually credit. But it looks as if that's not the case.
But again, it's -- as you mentioned, the most deadly period so far. Support for the war in the United States, in Europe, among the allies is getting lower and lower. People wonder why the United States is there. So, this can only really hurt that.
CHETRY: You know, we talk about the support waning not only because of the questions, what are we accomplishing, but also the economic costs. We heard from Jeff Sachs in the first hour that we are spending billions each and every year in Afghanistan without clear goals.
DOUGHERTY: Absolutely. And, you know, when we were there just a couple of weeks ago, I think the -- you hear over and over again, you can't win this on a battlefield. It's not going to be just a fight. You can't just blast out the Taliban because a lot of people in Afghanistan have relative who are in the Taliban.
ROBERTS: Sure.
DOUGHERTY: They're part of Afghanistan.
So, how do you pull people away from the Taliban? Because the Taliban come in and they provide things that the central government in Kabul can't do. So, you need, what we were following, which is the civilian side of it. And it's slow but it's really, really important, because otherwise, it will just go on and on with no definition. And the one thing that President Obama doesn't want, as we know, is to be there forever.
ROBERTS: We mentioned the United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place this week. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in town. The mothers of the two remaining hikers still held at Evin prison want an audience with him to try to convince them to release the two remaining hostages.
What do you think is going to happen?
DOUGHERTY: They want -- of course, they want their sons out now. And one American is out. And, in fact, President Ahmadinejad was one who intervened to get her out. So, it's natural to want to go to him again.
What did he say most recently? He said, well, they broke the law. They came over our border. This is illegal. They did it on purpose.
And however why don't you give us those eight Iranians held in the United States? Tit for tat. And the U.S. saying, it's apples and oranges. Forget it.
ROBERTS: Yes. So, is he looking for dialogue?
DOUGHERTY: Signals are out there that he is.
ROBERTS: OK.
CHETRY: Well, it will be interesting because he's going to be speaking actually to Larry King tomorrow night about it.
Thanks so much, Jill, by the way.
DOUGHERTY: Right. OK.
CHETRY: A programming night, it's a special "LARRY KING." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joining Larry to talk about the fate of the hikers we were just talking about, as well as his nation's nuclear program and much more. That is tomorrow night 9:00 Eastern on "LARRY KING LIVE."
ROBERTS: Well, the effort to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays faces a crucial test in the Senate today. A vote to begin debate on the defense bill that includes a provision for repeal may happen.
CHETRY: And pop star Lady Gaga did lobbying at a rally in Maine, urging the state's two Republican senators to help get rid of "don't ask, don't tell" and let gays serve openly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LADY GAGA, POP STAR: I'm here because they inspire me. I'm here because I believe in them. I'm here because "don't ask, don't tell" is wrong. It's unjust.
(CHEERS)
LADY GAGA: And fundamentally, it is against all that we stand for as Americans.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash has been following the debate. She's live in Washington.
So, Lady Gaga getting a lot of the attention -- but really, all eyes should be on the Capitol because that's where ultimately this will pass or fail.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And all eyes are on the Capitol, on the United States Senate.
Sources are telling us, Kiran, that it is going or the very, very close. Too close to call right now and because nothing here in the Senate is ever straightforward, we should explain that what we're talking about here is simply a vote on whether or not to start debate on a pretty big defense bill, $725 billion bill to authorize a lot of spending, including a pay raise for troops.
But it also does include that authorization for the Pentagon to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
And Republicans say that they're trying to block this bill from coming to the floor for several reasons. But the most important one, they say, is because they say that the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is setting up a process that doesn't allow them the ability to change or amend this bill in a proper way once it gets to the floor.
And, you know, Susan Collins, she is one of those Republicans who Lady Gaga was trying to pressure with that rally yesterday in her home state of Maine -- she actually is the one Republican who has voted in committee to repeal. She agrees with the Democrats that the policy should be repealed. However, she has suggested that she is going to stick with her party on this process.
And let me read you a statement that she released to CNN last night. She said, "Let me be clear: the 'don't ask, don't tell' law should be changed. It is simply not fair." But she went on to say, "It is disappointing, however, that instead of following a full and open debate on the Defense Authorization bill, the majority leader intends to shut the Republicans out of the debate."
A lot of people who want this to happen are concerned that if they don't get someone like Susan Collins, that this might die in this critical vote this afternoon.
ROBERTS: So, Dana, if the vote doesn't go ahead today, what then?
BASH: Well, regardless of what happens here in Congress, there is, of course, a Pentagon review that has been ongoing. It started in March and it is supposed to be completed by December.
However, you talk to gay rights advocates and they say, look, remember that this is a policy that if it -- if it is going to be repealed, it must be done by Congress.
And that is why there is such intense pressure both with big rallies like we saw yesterday and a lot of behind-the-scenes arm- twisting going on here at the Capitol, because they're very concerned -- those who support this repeal -- that with Democrats possibly going to lose the majority in Congress, but more specifically going to lose their big numbers in Congress potentially in November, that this is the time to strike. And that if Republicans are in charge of -- if Republicans have more numbers, it will be a lot harder to get this passed down the road. That is why they say it is so critical to do right now.
ROBERTS: Dana Bash for us this morning on Capitol Hill -- Dana, thanks.
BASH: Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it's nine minutes past the hour right now. Rob Marciano is following the weather for us the day before summer officially ends, right?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's kind of chilly up north right now. Temperatures close to freezing mark and beautiful start of your day across parts of the northeast. It's like -- that was a beauty shot. You know, this time of year, the sun pretty much rises right over the -- right due east and lights up those eastern buildings or the eastern face of the building in New York and actually, we're getting to the time of day we'll start to see the smog, as well.
Seventy-four degrees is the high temperature in New York. That will be cool, but 91 in St. Louis. And some of these numbers are going to surge eastward, we'll see a dramatic warm-up for the last day of fall. There will be few thunderstorms along this front as it passes slowly to the south and the east, and cooler air behind.
As far as what's going on tropically, we are looking at Igor, which the latest advisory just coming out for the 8:00 hour showing it's still a hurricane. Tracking just south of Newfoundland later on today and then scooting up and then scooting up (INAUDIBLE). That's an interesting track. It will become just more of like a northern Atlantic storm than a hurricane here before too long.
This is Tropical Storm Lisa with winds of 40 miles per hour. This time of year also, they have a hard time getting all the way across the Atlantic. So, I'm not terribly concerned with Lisa. We do have a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic which are -- or Caribbean -- which I think is going to be more of a concern especially as we get to next week.
Hey, weather warriors, guys. Later in this hour, we're going to talk to you about the Special Operations Weather Team, the SOWTies. They deploy in dangerous laces along the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers. And believe me -- these guys they can't afford to get a forecast wrong. It's an A.M original story you'll see only on here on AMERICAN MORNING and we'll have for you in about 20 minutes.
ROBERTS: Weatherman with a gun instead of a clicker.
MARCIANO: My favorite kind of guy.
ROBERTS: Yes. There you go. Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: Just rode out of a cargo plane on a motorcycle. Is that what we just saw?
MARCIANO: Oh, yes, we do that. They jump out of planes. They do all sorts of crazy stuff. It's -- I'm more comfortable here, though.
CHETRY: Yes, exactly. But they did let you tag along. So, we look forward to seeing what it is they do. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK.
CHETRY: Also, still ahead, frustrated voters voicing their concerns to President Obama himself. It was a town hall event, pretty extraordinary. Has the president lost his touch, some are asking, or is it simply one of the hardest times to be leader of the free world? We're going to be joined by the deputy Washington bureau chief of "TIME" magazine, Michael Crowley, in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fourteen minutes now after the hour and this just in to CNN. Aretha Franklin's son is undergoing emergency surgery. The singer's spokesperson says Eddie Franklin was severely beaten at a gas station in Detroit. Witnesses say three people, two men and a woman, attacked him on Monday night. The incident is being investigated by the Detroit police. We'll have more on that just as soon as we get it for you -- Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
Well, there's concern at the White House that the president may no longer be connecting effectively with the very people who put him in office -- even the most ardent Obama supporters seem to be losing their enthusiasm. At a town hall meeting last night, the same day that Americans were told the recession is officially over, it was hard to find a single satisfied voter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELMA HART, CFO, AMVETS: Quite frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED BRASSFIELD, LAW SCHOOL GRADUATE: Like a lot of people in my generation, I was really inspired by you and by your campaign and message that you brought. And that inspiration's dying away. It feels like the American dream is not attainable to a lot of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So we want to get more on the challenges facing President Obama with Michael Crowley, he is the deputy Washington bureau chief for "Time" magazine, joins us live from Washington this morning. I'm sorry. We have a Candy Crowley here, of course, as you know, it has been beaten into our heads that's how you say it.
MICHAEL CROWLEY, DEPUTY WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "TIME" MAGAZINE: No relation.
CHETRY: Thanks for joining us this morning.
CROWLEY: Thank you.
CHETRY: So this is interesting because the president was actually hearing not from people who disagreed with him politically but people who were some of his most ardent supporters, 20 months into his presidency he is having a hard time convincing those very people that he is doing enough to move the country in the right direction. Where does he go from here?
CROWLEY: Yes, well, it's really hard. His options are very limited by the -- you know, among other things, the Republicans' ability to filibuster his agenda in the congress and also the state of the economy. We have a long way to go to dig ourselves out. A lot has to do with businesses and households getting the finances in order.
But what happened yesterday was not really a revelation. It is more crystallizing a phenomenon we have known about for a while. We have seen in poll numbers and anecdotally, which is that, his supporters are feeling disillusioned.
They are feeling like they were expecting more out of him. They, you know, I think really expectations got too high in the campaign, and it reached a point where some people really began to feel like Obama almost had like magical powers. That he was going to be able to wave a wand and make their lives better but the reality is inheriting a financial disaster like he did and having Republicans able to filibuster his agenda in the senate just greatly limit his ability to make a big, quick change in the lives of middle class people who are hurting.
CHETRY: It is interesting, though. Because when he was asked about the Tea Party supporters from the movement, he said, you know, this is in our DNA and we've been protesting the government since the American revolution. He didn't make it personal and it was interesting to note that because how angry it seems that so many people are out there. Not just to say that only Tea Party supporters are the only people who are angry but it seems to be just a major sense of unease, unhappiness, and wanting the status quo to change. Unfortunately, does that include the White House?
CROWLEY: Well, look. Obviously, the White House wants the status quo to change. I think Obama's language of the Tea Parties was smart. He may have been borrowing from Bill Clinton who actually said similar things a couple of days ago. Bill Clinton who had the experience of Ross Perot and the deficit concern Perot voters in 1992 was saying you might not like everything the Tea Party stand for, some of their candidates in Obama's view might be extreme and have terrible ideas but one of the core ideas in the Tea Party movement is that government spending and deficits are out of control and that is a concern that Americans almost across the board share. And you have to show respect for it. You can't just dismiss the entire movement and all their issues.
But what Obama did say was, OK, fine I share your concern about deficits but let's have a grown-up conversation of what cuts we are going to make to get the budget balanced and the deficit in order. That is a hard conversation, and frankly, a lot of Tea Party candidates are skirting that question trying to have it both ways. So I thought he handled that very well. Maybe a little better than his response to voters empathy and that sort of thing, emotion in those settings is not Obama's strongest suit, unfortunately.
CHETRY: He did make a joke about it, too. Somebody said I'm a hedge fund manager, I feel like you've been hitting Wall Street around like a pinata. He said I think Main street feels that way, too. But there was a larger, you know, context to that about whether or not the president is anti-business. He argued, again, for why he feels that the wealthiest Americans who carry the largest part of the tax burden, why he wants them to be taxed more with the Bush tax cuts expiring.
CROWLEY: Yes and I think the president and White House feels that's a winning issue of the few in this campaign to fight Republicans on the question of raising taxes, allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for Americans making $250,000 or more. Obama frames it as borrowing foreign governments to finance the debt so that we can grow the deficit to give them tax cuts we can't afford. But I think that, you know, the anti-business charge I don't know if it washes.
You know, he was supportive of big bailouts for the banks and has the stimulus bill was something that the U.S. Chamber of commerce and other businesses wanted for money into the economy but he is wearing that label and it was interesting that he didn't use some of that rhetoric we have heard before where he was talking about greed on Wall Street and corporate America run amock. He has dialed that back a little bit because I think he is sensitive to the criticism politically.
CHETRY: Right, and he mentioned the consumer protection agency trying to make sure that predatory lenders don't make things more difficult for people in the middle class. But it was also interesting because a lot of concern about the unemployment rate and you want strong businesses, or the businesses that hire. So this, you know, feeling whether it's right or wrong he may be anti-business or that business perhaps are scared by the changes to health care and the tax rate are questions that are going to keep coming up for the administration.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. And this is one of the Republicans' favorite lines of attack and feel like it's sticking. I think there's a lot of confusion even among economists as to why businesses who are sitting on huge amounts of capital right now that would be terrific for the economy to move it around and spending it and investing it. They are sitting on all this money. There's a debate as to why exactly conservatives argued it is due to uncertainty about Obama's agenda, what the meaning of the health care law and financial regulatory reform bill are going to be for them. Democrats say that's not the case. A lot of economists say that's not the case. It is more complicated than that. But Republicans are having a field day saying that Obama allegedly anti-business that his policies have thrown the business community into confusion and hesitation and tough fight for the White House right now.
CHETRY: It is certainly tough times for the White House and for a lot of people out there. Michael Crowley, deputy Washington bureau chief -- got it right that time --
CROWLEY: Yes.
CHETRY: Of "Time" magazine.
CROWLEY: Thank you.
CHETRY: Thanks for joining us this morning, good to talk to you.
CROWLEY: Great to be here, thank you.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Well the new Wall Street movie premiered last night. Is greed still good? And how much has Wall Street changed over the years anyway? Eliot Spitzer coming up to tell us about that.
And more parents are pulling the kids out of school to home school them and not a religious thing. No, home school communities are popping up throughout the country. We'll go inside one of them and talk to the parents and the kids coming up next. Twenty one minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Time now for an "A.M. Original" something that you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING. Home schooling is awfully hot in the last ten years, the number of American children being taught at home by their parents is nearly doubled.
CHETRY: A lot of those families say they had little choice, claiming that the other options were either inadequate, unsafe, or both. Carol Costello's live in Washington this morning with a trend many say speaks volumes about our schools. Good morning Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes it speaks nothing good, right? Want an alternative? By sending your kid to a public or private school? How about becoming your child's teacher as in homeschooling? It is not so unusual anymore. In fact, shadow schools are popping up all over the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PASCHA FRANKLIN, HOMESCHOOLING PARENT: Isabel, you're next. What card do you need --
COSTELLO (voice-over): It is not your normal classroom and if you ask these parents that's a good thing.
FRANKLIN: When your kids are saying, I want to do this and it's some kind of lesson, you smile because you're like, yes. They like learning.
COSTELLO: Pascha Franklin is home schooling her kids and they love it.
(on camera): Do you like being taught by your mom?
PARKER FRANKLIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: Why?
P. FRANKLIN: Because I get to be with mommy.
COSTELLO: How does your mom make it fun to learn?
P. FRANKLIN: She does activities, cool activities.
COSTELLO (voice-over): And it seems Parker's not alone. According to the U.S. Department of education, 1.5 million kids are taught by mom and dad. That's up 74percent since 1999.
(on camera): What do you think the biggest misconception people have of home schoolers?
JESSICA HANNON, HOMESCHOOLING PARENT: Besides being weird and wearing our hair in a bun and denim jumpers? We are just like everybody else. We are not super moms. It is a decision just like public school, private school.
Now what can you tell me about this?
COSTELLO (voice-over): A lingering misconception is main reason most parents decide to home school is for religious reasons. That's not quite true anymore. 36 percent of parents do home school primarily to teach their kids religious and moral values. But 38 percent home school because they don't like the school environment or the way teachers teach.
ALEX SOBRAL, HOMESCHOOLING PARENT: I mean, the flexibility.
COSTELLO: Just ask this Sobral family. They're home schooling five children.
SOBRAL: Just you're taught that you have to go to, you know, a, b and c and if you're not excelling here, you must have something wrong with you.
COURTNEY SOBRAL: What we have learned is unnatural putting 20 children in a room learning with one teacher on the same schedule. The exact same material and in the same way is actually quite unnatural.
COSTELLO (voice-over): What is natural for these parents, home schooling communities in effect shadow schools where their kids socialize and parents can share learning techniques.
HANNON: There's more resources available today. You don't have to be a scholar, you know, to teach your children. There's tons of resources out there to help you.
COSTELLO: Like non-profit groups that provide an overall curriculum. For-profit groups with weekly lesson plans for groups of parents. Still, that doesn't mean it's a cinch. Laura Brodie wrote "Love in a Time of Homeschooling" after homeschooling her daughter for one year.
LAURA BRODIE, AUTHOR, "LOVE IN A TIME OF HOMESCHOOLING": We had a very good experience, a lot of successes but also a lot of fights and power struggles, and I didn't find homeschooling books anywhere talking about that. They talked about the advantages of homeschooling but not so much about the bad days.
COSTELLO: Or the fact that home schooling is 24/7 job.
C. SOBRAL: Everything is educational. It is 365 days a year. And of course, we take breaks, we have fun, we do watch cartoons. We don't just have a time when we turn learning on and learning off. Do you know where we get volcanic ash?
COSTELLO: But for a growing number of families, home schools is the best way to raise as these parents would say, well-rounded kids who will become not just smart adults but good people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And John and Kiran, one of the other trends that's going on right now in the world of homeschooling is parents pulling the kids out of school for a year. In fact, Laura Brodie pulled her kid out of school for fifth grade, taught her at home. Kind of focused in on what she wanted to learn about and solve those problems she was having at school and then she put her daughter back into public schools and her daughter is doing quite well.
ROBERTS: So, when it comes to homeschooling, are there any particular qualifications a person needs? Do the parents need to have some sort of background in education?
COSTELLO: Generally, no. Each state has its own regulations per se. Many states don't have any regulations at all. And if you ask parents that home school, they don't want to be regulated. They want to get out of government control-controlled public schools and teach their children the way they want to. So that would sort of destroy the beauty of that homeschoolers think of homeschooling. In fact, we got some comments on our blog. Cnn.com/amfix from three parents who home school who say thanks for representing us more fairly because, you know, the -- I think that what most people think of homeschooling they think of the woman, you know, the woman with her hair in the bun and kind of isolating their kids at home and not letting them socialize with other people and homeschooling has changed a lot in the last 20 or 30 years.
CHETRY: Yes. It has. I saw another one of your blog comments thanking you for the story, saying that "I homeschooled my children for two or three years and learned more than the prior six." That the resources, unfortunately, in many communities aren't there for public schools anymore.
COSTELLO: That's right. You know, and one more thing for qualified parents teaching their children. It is sort of the same as public schools. The better the teacher, the better your kid learns. The better the parent teaches, the better the kid learns. It's the same thing if homeschooling as it is in the public schools.
But the difference is that parents are concentrating on their children, teaching them what they want to learn, and they have a lot of help online these days and a lot of help from other parents.
ROBERTS: Well, great look at that for us this morning. Carol Costello in Washington. Carol, thanks.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, we're crossing the half hour right now. Time for this morning's top stories. A chopper down in Afghanistan, NATO saying that the helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan killed nine U.S. service members. It's now the deadliest year for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: What will he say this time? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on deck at the United Nations this morning. The mothers of two American hikers still being held captive in Iran are hoping they will get a chance to speak with the Iranian president this week.
CHETRY: And Delaware GOP nominee Christine O'Donnell is denying she misused money from her last Senate run. She did though shy away from statistics when our Gary Tuchman caught up with her at a campaign forum last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, (R) DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: Why are you listening to a liberal organization in the first place? They're scared that the person that Harry Reid called his pet is not going to get the seat. The momentum surrounding the campaign is obvious. That's why they're creating baseless accusations.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you talk about --
O'DONNELL: I'm confident that we have been ethical. We have not, I personally have not misused the campaign funds. We have our FEC lawyer, a great attorney, answering those charges if it ever goes anywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A watchdog group has filed a complaint with the FEC over checks that O'Donnell wrote after her 2008 campaign ended. The O'Donnell campaign has not responded to our phone calls this morning but did say in a statement it's very confident that the accusations will be dismissed as frivolous.
ROBERTS: Time now for the latest news from "The Best Political Team on Television." Crossing our Political Ticker this morning, Sarah Palin's effort to shape the 2010 primaries ends on a positive note and a winning season.
CHETRY: Yes. Our Senior Political Editor Mark Preston live in Washington with I guess you could call it the scoreboard. Hi, Mark.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Kiran, hey John. You know, politics is very much like sports. They're very similar. And you're judged by the wins and losses.
So how did Sarah Palin do? She was active in this primary campaign. She didn't do too bad, actually -- 18 of the candidates that she supported in competitive primaries won. She had 11 losses. Among those losses was Karen Handel who was running for the gubernatorial nomination in Georgia.
But one of her big wins is Nikki Haley who won the gubernatorial nomination in South Carolina, and, of course, Christine O'Donnell. Speaking of Christine O'Donnell, talk about somebody who's been running a guerilla campaign up until about last week. All of a sudden she is the nominee in Delaware, which means her campaign has to transition.
And in doing so you need to raise money. In the past week alone, she said she raised $2 million. That should help build her campaign organization in Delaware as she tries to defy the odds and winning Joe Biden's old Senate seat.
And closing on some bad news right now for Democrats. Gallup has new numbers out in the last 12 hours which shows that the enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats is rather wide. According to these numbers, 47 percent of Republicans are enthusiastic about voting in November. Meanwhile, only 28 percent of Democrats.
And of the Gallup analyst, they say that this will almost certainly mean that Republicans will get more votes on Election Day. So a lot of work for Democrats to do over the next six weeks should they hope to control the House of Representatives and still hold back any wins in the Senate. John, Kiran?
ROBERTS: What were those percentages again, 47-28?
PRESTON: They were 47-28. And we all know it's all about enthusiasm and momentum. Right now appears to be on the Republican side.
CHETRY: Is that usually in line with a midterm election or are those numbers different?
PRESTON: I think they're a little bit different. They're in line in the sense that the party of power historically loses seats in a midterm election, but you're talking about a situation where the economy is doing so poorly, you have so many people unemployed, and Democrats right now are having to pay the price.
CHETRY: Mark Preston, great to talk to you as always. Thanks.
PRESTON: Thanks.
CHETRY: A reminder -- you can get all the latest political news by going to our website, CNNpolitics.com, or CNN.com/ticker.
ROBERTS: The new "Wall Street" movie "Money Never Sleeps" premiered last night. And we're asking the question this morning, is greed still good? How much has Wall Street really changed over the years since the original movie? Eliot Spitzer joins us coming up next. It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 38 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Greed is back, at least, you know, on Wall Street, in the movies. "Wall Street -- Money Never Sleeps" premiered last night. Here's a little clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You like insurance?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's not to like? Easy as selling crack to kids in a school playground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Credit default swap is good idea. It's the execution that isn't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what they say. Bulls make money. Bears make money. The pigs, they get slaughtered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, over the past couple of years, we have seen several real-life Gordon Gekkos, the villains of Wall Street, exposed as the nation's financial system collapsed.
ROBERTS: Joining us now is the former sheriff of Wall Street, the host of CNN's new program "PARKER SPITZER," former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Great to see you.
ELIOT SPTIZER, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Thank you for having me on.
ROBERTS: First of all, the news of the day is that the recession ended 14 months ago, and many people in America could say you could fool me.
SPTIZER: I think nobody believes the recession over. The definition of a recession is when GDP begins to grow again, but that is not the measure that people care about. One of the two things people care about, one, jobs, and two, median family income. In other words, is the middle class beginning to see its income going up?
Those two numbers are going the wrong direction. We are still 20 million jobs short whatever the seven or either million job figure they use is really an undercount, and the middle class is hurting. And that is why the sheer measure of GDP means a few people on Wall Street, to bring it back to Gordon Gekko, a few people on Wall Street making a ton of money. Everybody else is suffering.
CHETRY: So I would like to get your take on what's going on. We just talked to Michael Crowley, the Washington bureau chief of "TIME" magazine, and he said that businesses are sitting on a lot of capital, that they have the means, broadly speaking to hire again. So why isn't --
SPTIZER: The only words that he used that might disagree with a little bit are a lot. It's more than a lot. It's $1.7 trillion. Businesses have been profitable because they have cut their workforce and become more efficient, and they're making money overseas.
If you look at the stock market, companies that are doing well are making money overseas, not so much domestically, and they not spending it and investing $1.7 trillion because there's no demand domestically for those goods. There isn't enough purchasing power because the middle class lost so much.
The net worth of the average household last year down 2.8 percent, excuse me, last quarter. So you're worth less. If you don't have money to spend, you're not going to buy. If there's no demand for stuff, companies aren't going to buy more equipment to build it. And that's why we're in a demand depression or demand recession and that is the crisis we are facing.
ROBERTS: The question has been asked is this administration friendly to business or not? The CEO of Intel recently said the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here, suggesting the White House doesn't get it.
And yesterday during the president's town hall meeting, Anton Scaramucci, who is a former law school buddy of the president's and his hedge fund manager, said this about what's going on with business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY SCARAMUCCI, TOWN HALL ATTENDEE: Listen. I represent the Wall Street community. We have felt like a pinata. Maybe you don't feel like you've been whacking us with a stick, but we certainly feel like we've been whacked with a stick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The administration's been whacking him with a stick. What is your take? Is this a business-friendly administration?
SPTIZER: Sure it is. This is one of the most remarkable miscommunication efforts I've ever seen on the part of the White House. The White House should be saying you created this mess. We're not anti-business. We're simply changing the rules to make sure we don't have another crisis. We're making sure you don't commit fraud. We making sure we don't have to spend taxpayer money to bail you out. So don't complain now that we're making you play by the rules. Get back to what you're supposed to be doing which is to invent and create and produce.
And maybe the CEOs don't need to make 500 as much as their workers on average. They can make a little less and pay people a decent wage. This isn't an anti-business administration. The business leadership, the chamber of commerce, was the voice of the banks that took us over the cliff.
It is shocking to me that the president and the White House haven't stood up and said you created in mess. We cleaned it up. You are acting like a petulant kid. Now get back to doing what you're supposed to be doing.
CHETRY: They're also the people hiring. The private industry, the private sector creates more jobs.
SPTIZER: Of course it does.
CHETRY: What is the solution when you say there's a demand recession and people are -- it's cheaper to make things overseas. People overseas want them.
SPTIZER: That's the larger crisis of globalization we have to deal with, and that is what the president is trying to deal with. We are living in a global economy where labor in the United States is now competing with labor in India, China, Vietnam. Outsourcing -- there's a TV show about it. "Outsourcing" is key word in terms of global economics.
But in terms of hiring, it is small and medium-sized businesses that did not receive all the money from the TARP bailouts and the rest. They are the ones who hire who played by the rules, didn't get federal guarantees, didn't get bailed out. They are the ones we should be taking care of, not the Wall Street institutions that gamed the system over and over and over.
ROBERTS: Back to where we started with the sequel to "Wall Street -- Money Never Sleeps," 25 years later, or whatever it is. Is greed still good? Can fiction live up to the reality?
SPTIZER: Fiction is always better than reality, although Wall Street, the reality came pretty close in the last couple of years.
Here's the thing, the metaphor that I use is that after a crisis like this, a couple of people, not nearly as many as should, get taken away in handcuffs and sent to jail, and it's like getting a speeding ticket. When you get a speeding ticket, I won't put you on the spot ask you if you have gotten one. I have. If you get a speeding ticket, for the next 10 or 15 miles you slow down. And then you start putting your foot on the accelerator a little bit, and that is why this is a cycle. For two or three years, Wall Street will change the behavior. Five years from now I can almost guarantee another wave of crises, frauds, crimes, greed that will push the limits and be outrageous.
CHETRY: Whoever thought credit default swaps would be --
SPTIZER: A household word.
CHETRY: Unfortunately.
But I mean, just back to what you're saying again. I feel -- is there a solution in the hands of our leaders for what you're talking about this -- this crisis of globalization?
SPITZER: Yes. There is a solution but it's not one that fits into the time frame of the electoral cycle. By that I mean you can't change an economy in two years. President Obama and the smart people around him -- and I disagree about a lot of what they have done in terms of the banks but they understand the problem but we are trying to change the entire structure of an economy. It takes 10 years, 15 years, not two.
And so to expect the midterm elections to be a round of applause and approval simply misses the point and it won't happen that quickly. Especially when we are coming off to ten years of a disaster that preceded.
ROBERTS: Eliot great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by.
SPITZER: Thank you. My pleasure.
CHETRY: It's good to see you. And --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: The premier -- the premier of "Wall Street 2" last night and don't miss the premier of "Parker-Spitzer" it's the new show that's coming to CNN's primetime line up; starts Monday, October 4th, 8 p.m. Eastern.
CHETRY: All right.
Meanwhile, meet the "Weather Warriors," this is the Air Force's Elite Special Operations Weather Team. They go into war zones and literally forecast weather on the spot. They let Rob Marciano tag along for a training session.
We'll check in, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, when you picture America's elite special ops forces it's hard to imagine a bunch of meteorologists leaping from the sky into the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: But that is exactly what one highly-trained group of weather experts is doing.
Our Rob Marciano here with an "AM Original"; these weather guys are under a lot more pressure than your average meteorologist.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, what did you mean by that? It's hard to imagine meteorologist doing this sort of thing.
CHETRY: Well, you know, there are less than 100 of these guys, right?
MARCIANO: Yes.
CHETRY: So obviously they are a rare breed.
MARCIANO: It is tough to get the "Rambo"-weather guy combination going. There's a select few of them. And yesterday we introduced you to these elite Air Force units. They go in the battle with the likes of the Green Berets, the Army Rangers, all of these special ops forces.
And believe it or not, I happen to have one thing in common with these guys. I, too, am a weather specialist but that's where our similarities end.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were M-4 carbine.
MARCIANO (voice-over): They are just like any other soldier showing off their guns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With this I go forward.
It's what the guys like to use when they are in the southern Afghanistan where there's big wide open spaces and they really need to reach out and touch somebody.
MARCIANO (on camera): And what does this have to do with weather?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you have to be alive to be able to report the weather.
MARCIANO: That's a good point.
(voice-over): These guys are members of an elite unit. Special Operations Weather Team, SOWT.
MASTER SGT. MIKE MARSTON, U.S. AIR FORCE SOWT: The science of what we do or what you and I do is pretty much the same. The application of it is a little bit different.
MARCIANO: Yes, much different. It's environmental recon commando style. Today is Rapids Training Day.
Get a fully loaded C-130 on the ground and offloaded quickly.
This is the 10th Combat Weather Squadron; dirt bikes, APVs, Humvees and SOWT personnel. When they need to get out into a hostile environment, they do it out at the back of a plane. And they do it in a hurry.
(on camera): These special ops weather guys aren't the weather geeks I went to school with.
(voice-over): No, sir.
And on the ground is when they go to work.
(on camera): Of course the main objective for this SOWT is to gather weather information so that means you got to get out there and you got to get out there quickly. And you've got to set up whatever equipment you -- you are using to take your data observations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Temperature 23.
SGT. EVERT CARSON, U.S. AIR FORCE SOWT: Temp 23 Celsius.
MARCIANO: Sergeant Evert Carson has been deployed eight times.
CARSON: Overcast 180. How copy?
MARCIANO: Most have served multiple tours and all of them including Sergeant Bryce Howser have war stories.
STAFF SGT. BRYCE HOWSER, U.S. AIR FORCE SOWT: The IED goes off. We've got guys hurt on the ground and it's my job to let the med-evac birds know exactly what to expect. I suggested a flight path for them to take through a specific pass at that point. They were able to get in and get the two wounded guys off the -- of the LZ.
LT. COL. JOE BENSON, COMMANDER, 10 COMBAT WEATHER SQUADRON: This is M-4.
MARCIANO: Lieutenant Colonel Benson commands the SOWTs and knows how important this training is to keep all forces on mission.
BENSON: Early on in the Iraq campaign we had guys up in northern Iraq who were taking weather observations and passing them back to 16 aircraft which were about to deliver 1,000 paratroopers.
Weather cleared up just for a brief period of time, 1,000 guys were able to exit the aircraft and land up in a place called Basher Airfield (ph) and on with the mission they went.
MARCIANO: So don't refer to them as just the weather men.
HOWSER: To be called just a weatherman definitely gets under your skin a little bit but once you're put in a situation where you have to prove yourself and the weather call is on the line, that's whenever they realize, hey, this guy isn't just the weather guy. He's a special operations weatherman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready to transmit.
HOWSER: And he's a soldier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Yes. Being called just a weatherman gets under my skin but I'm not out there killing people, protecting our country. There's less than 100 SOWTs in the Air Force. Because of that they have one of the highest deployment rates in the military and they've been doing this since World War II and throughout the missions and mini tours, anywhere from a month to three months that they're out with these guys. They have yet to lose one SOWT, so that's an amazing figure.
ROBERTS: that's great track record. Do the other branches of the services have similar teams?
MARCIANO: Not like this. I mean the Navy has their meteorologists. The Air Force has meteorologists that kind of do back in an office but none go out like this with special ops guys. They're trained to be a special ops soldier. They go out with the Green Berets. They have -- one or two go out with any one small unit, six to ten guys.
And you think about those guys have been training a tight unit for six, you know, forever and then this one weather guy comes in and has to blend in with them and work as a unit with them and they have to adapt quickly.
ROBERTS: Isn't that the way it always is, though?
MARCIANO: We'll always be outsiders, yes.
CHETRY: Poor thing. No, but it's also amazing because you're dealing with some of the most treacherous conditions in Afghanistan and the sandstorms in Iraq. I mean there's a lot going on.
MARCIANO: Yes. Much more than just weather, too. You have to deal with the terrain. Can I cross a river? Can I get over a mountain? Is there avalanche danger? Environmental recon is what they term it and -- well, environmental recon, Rambo style is the way I look at it. It's pretty amazing stuff.
ROBERTS: Great story. Thanks Rob.
MARCIANO: Thanks guys.
ROBERTS: Seven minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be back right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Today is World Alzheimer's Day and a new report points to the staggering impact of Alzheimer's as well as other forms of dementia.
ROBERTS: Worldwide, the costs associated with dementia will be over $600 billion this year. That's one percent of the world's gross domestic product. In fact, taking in a monetary level, it would represent the biggest company in the world in terms of revenues.
By 2030, those costs projected to increase by 85 percent. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, Alzheimer's Association president Harry Johns said progress in treating the disease has been painfully slow in coming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRY JOHNS, PRESIDENT, ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION: We do need to see treatments. Today we don't have a treatment that stops or even slows the progress of the disease even though we do have treatments that are improvements for people's functional lives. So we have got -- we've got to invest more in research to make a difference in that in time for this baby boomer generation that is going to have at least 10 million people have the disease themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Right now, more than 5 million people in the United States are afflicted with Alzheimer's and that number expected to triple by the middle of the century.
CHETRY: He talked about the small, relatively speaking, amount of funding that goes toward it, as well.
ROBERTS: Yes. A little less than $500 million, so it's just woefully underfunded compared to other diseases.
CHETRY: It's a shame. We're going to take a break. We'll be back.
Two minutes until the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, that's going to do it for us. We're out of time for today. We'll be back here bright and early tomorrow morning.
ROBERTS: Thanks for joining us. We'll see you then.
"CNN NEWSROOM" starts right now with Kyra Phillips. Good morning Kyra.
