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American Morning

Wisconsin Levee on the Brink; Bishop Eddie Vows to Fight Sex Charges; Afghanistan Memoir Trashed by Defense Department; NFL Price Hike; Campaigns Attack on Twitter; Israel Settlement Ban Expires; Bracing for Impact; Obama's Approval Rating

Aired September 27, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning, and thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. Hope you had a great weekend.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It was nice.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHETRY: It was fast. But it certainly felt like fall for the first time, at least in New York.

ROBERTS: And now we've got lots of rain in New York City today, so that's going to affect our travel. We've got the weather forecast coming up. Good morning. Good to be with us. I'm John Roberts.

CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Want to get you caught up on what happened overnight.

We are talking extreme weather, but now in Wisconsin, where a levee is on the brink of collapse right now in that state. People who live nearby have been advised to leave before they end up with no way out. Rob Marciano is watching all of that and another potentially dangerous storm along the east coast, as well.

ROBERTS: Bishop Eddie Long under fire and firing back from the pulpit. The mega church pastor speaking out against allegations he coerced four young men into having sex with him. CNN's Martin Savidge is following developments. His live report just ahead.

Also a pilot making a heart-stopping emergency landing at JFK over the weekend after the landing gear failed bringing 64 people in without a scratch on them. It was all caught on tape from inside the plane. We'll have an exclusive interview with two passengers who were on that flight.

ROBERTS: And the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation going on right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.

CHETRY: Up first, we're following extreme weather this morning. Emergency crews fearing the total failure of a levee that's been around for more than 100 years in Wisconsin. It's located along the Wisconsin River just south of Portage. Emergency officials told about 150 residents to get out yesterday. Those who didn't listen are already cut off.

ROBERTS: The sand levee is under intense pressure after torrential rains last week. The water already filling up some homes and this may be only the beginning.

CHETRY: Our Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center tracking all of this for us this morning. So are they still in a situation where the waters are still rising now?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, the river at least at Portage did crest last night. But it's going to remain above flood stage for quite some time. So not only across Wisconsin, but across southern and central parts of Minnesota. We've got all these rivers that are actually draining into the Mississippi. And we're going to see some issues, I think, downstream from there, as well. So that's issue number one.

Issue number two is -- more immediate concerns, what's going on in Portage. Here is where the river crested. The record is 20.5 feet. It crested just above that last night. And now it's at 20.2 feet. So we're still at near record stage. Definitely a major flood stage, but not expected to come back down below flood stage really until late Wednesday into Thursday.

So we've got quite some time before this river really gets below the danger zone. And what I mean by danger zone is, well, you know, usually after a river crests, we begin to relax. But because of this situation where you have all that pressure on this very, very old and quite frankly, not very well designed or built levee back in the late 1800s, you've got pressure that's going to be on this until it goes below flood stage. So for the next three days is what these officials are concerned about. And they're talking about pretty scary situations. And things that I'm reading about, they don't really know what will happen if this levee fails. That's the scariest thing.

All right. Good news for Wisconsin and Minnesota. The rains are gone, but they have moved to the east coast. So we have our own flooding situation here from Georgia through the Carolinas up through the northeast. This particular storm system getting pretty potent with not only rain but thunderstorms, as well. We'll talk more about that and what's going on in the tropics a little bit later on in the program. Back to you guys up in New York.

ROBERTS: All right, looking forward to that. Rob, thanks so much.

MARCIANO: You got it.

ROBERTS: Frightening moments for passengers onboard a Delta Airlines flight this weekend. All of it caught on tape from inside the plane. The pilot had to make an emergency landing in New York's JFK airport because the plane's landing gear was stuck. The passenger on board shot cell phone video as the plane was touching down. Look and listen to how this all played out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Sparks flying with 3,000 gallons of fuel inside those wings as the wing tips scraped the runway. Sixty-four people on that plane. Everyone OK. And they were pretty happy about the whole thing. Listen to this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: They're cheering at the end there as they finally realized thank goodness, we're on the ground and we're all safe.

CHETRY: Yes. I mean, it's interesting because the two people we're going to be speaking to were obviously not listening to the mantra of the flight attendant. Heads down, stay down.

ROBERTS: Well, you never know. You can have your head down and hold --

CHETRY: Yes, but your hand is over the cell phone. Anyway, all's well that ends well. They're going to join us and talk about exactly what was going on when all of that happened. Some scary moments on that flight. This is coming up at 40 minutes past the hour. They're going to have video and their amazing story to go along with it.

ROBERTS: Now to a mega church pastor at the center of a growing sex scandal. Bishop Eddie Long addressing the faithful for the first time publicly since he was accused of coercing young male church members into sexual relationships with him.

CHETRY: Bishop Long told the congregation during a Sunday sermon that he's not a perfect man, but that he's ready for a fight. CNN's Martin Savidge is following developments for us. He is live in Atlanta today.

Good morning, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Good morning, Kiran.

Yes, this was hugely anticipated because, of course, Bishop Eddie Long had issued denials through his attorneys and had issued them through statements by spokespersons, but this was the first time he himself would be appearing in public to talk about the salacious allegations that had been made against him.

The congregation began showing up. They were already in the parking lot at 5:30 in the morning when we were there for a service to start at 8:00. The traffic was still heavily snarled when the service got underway. And inside it was clear that once he appeared, there was a huge cheer that went up from the congregation. He came out holding hands with his wife. He was in a very good mood and he certainly wasn't going to back down. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP EDDIE LONG: I feel like David against Goliath. But I got five rocks, and I haven't thrown one yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And then you see, that was him walking off. He was supposed to hold a news conference afterwards. We were all gathered to offer questions to him. He came out. He was very subdued. He only issued a statement. His attorney said he would not take any questions whatsoever. And then after that, he simply walked away.

One of the things that was pointed out, though, was, of course, the fact that he did not during that service specifically deny the charges that were made against him. Afterwards we talked to parishioners, some of them said they felt very relieved. They thought he did a great job. Others said, you know what? They really weren't sure because he didn't specifically say he didn't do it -- John and Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. That was interesting to note. Of course, still a lot has to come out. But every week it seems that there is another accuser that comes out, as well. So, of course, the story will continue. Martin Savidge, thanks so much.

Well, it's six minutes past the hour right now. And we're following breaking news just in to CNN from Afghanistan.

Word of a NATO air strike that killed 49 people over the weekend. The coalition is saying that choppers actually crossed into Pakistani air space in pursuit of suspected insurgents. And that is where this air strike took place. It's always a touchy issue in our partnership with Pakistan and the war on terror. But we'll have more details on the attack as they come in.

ROBERTS: Also new this morning, the Feds are reportedly seeking new regulations for wiretaps on the Internet. The "New York Times" reporting today that law enforcement and national security officials claim their ability to wiretap suspects is, quote, "going dark" as people communicate more online than they do by telephone. They want Congress to acquire all services that enable communications including social networking sites to be technically capable of complying if they're ever served with a wiretap order.

CHETRY: Stephen Colbert will be back in New York City today after facing what may have been his toughest audience yet, Congress. As you mentioned last week, the Comedy Central host testified about conditions facing America's undocumented farm workers. There was a little bit of confusion as to whether or not he was going to be testifying as Stephen Colbert or whether he would be in character -- well, check out his testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Picking beans, packing corn for hours on end side by side in the unforgiving sun, I have to say and I do mean this sincerely, please don't make me do this again. It is really, really hard. For one thing when you're picking beans, you have to spend all day bending over. It turns out and I did not know this, most soil is at ground level. If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we make the earth waist high? Come on. Where is the funding?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: For once, there's kind of a bipartisan agreement that Colbert's testimony was anything but funny. Republican Congressman Steve King said Colbert mocked the entire hearing process and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Chris Wallace on "FOX News Sunday" that Colbert's bit was, quote, "not appropriate."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MAJORITY LEADER: I think it was an embarrassment for Mr. Colbert more than the House. He was --

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": Well, he was called by the Democratic chair of the subcommittee.

HOYER: You ask me, Chris, whether the testimony was appropriate. I think it was not appropriate.

WALLACE: And he should not have been called.

HOYER: Well, I don't know about whether he was called, but what he had to say I think was not the way it should have been said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And I think part of the confusion is he gave written testimony, as well, that he was explaining these were difficult jobs. These are jobs that many Americans don't want to take, which is why there is so much migrant labor and that there should possibly be a pathway for at least working papers for the immigrants who do that.

ROBERTS: The whole thing was a little strange to say the least, but Colbert's getting, you know, plenty of people supporting him, as well. Congress says that he made a mockery of the hearing process. But other people who have stood up for Colbert say Congress has made a mockery of the hearing process.

CHETRY: Right.

ROBERTS: So, you know, don't blame him.

CHETRY: Apparently when he tried to submit, I guess, a couple of photos of his colonoscopy to the hearing, they started getting upset.

ROBERTS: Well, that might be a little off topic.

CHETRY: Yes. Well, no, he said it was on topic that Americans should stop eating vegetables as part of the solution to the illegal immigrant labor. There you go.

ROBERTS: That's a little off topic, though. Goodness, me.

CHETRY: Well, stay with us, coming up in 40 minutes, we're going to get the latest news from "The Best Political Team on Television." Our senior political editor, Mark Preston, will tell us what's crossing the ticker.

ROBERTS: A decorated Army reservist book on Afghanistan literally trashed by the government. What's in the book that has the Pentagon up in arms and what the author is saying today? We'll tell you.

It's 10 minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twelve minutes past the hour. Developing story right now.

The Pentagon buys the first 9,500 copies of an Army reservist's book of an undercover operation that took place in Afghanistan. The book labeled a threat to national security and thus destroyed by the Pentagon.

ROBERTS: Amazing. The Pentagon claims the new memoir "Operation Dark Heart" doesn't just reveal an officer's experiences while fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, it actually gives away classified information. Barbara Starr joins us live from the Pentagon to break down the details.

Not often we hear of a book being destroyed. Obviously the Pentagon was really worried about this.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, apparently they were, John and Kiran, you're right. When's the last time you heard about government sanctioned book destruction?

But here it is. This right here is "Operation Dark Heart" by Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer. This is the second printing of the book, the one you can buy now. And if you open it up, you can see that now it contains blacked-out passages at the government's behest. This is what the Pentagon is willing to let you buy, a book with blacked-out passages.

What are we really talking about here? Well, Colonel Shaffer has now seen nearly 10,000 copies of his book destroyed by the Pentagon. The Pentagon says it contains classified information about his work. He's an intelligence officer in the wars in Afghanistan and even in his time in other jobs in intelligence. Colonel Shaffer says it all smacks of retaliation to him. And here's a bit more of what he's had to say about it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY SHAFFER, ARMY INTEL OFC.; AUTHOR, "OEPRATION DARK HEART": There are some things that the Army felt they did not want in, and I automatically -- I just took them out. There was no argument. If they felt it was sensitive or something couldn't be referenced properly, it's out. And then that process was completed by January of this year. And from there, after I received written permission, the written documents went to the publisher, then we moved forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Written permission. So why did it all get destroyed?

Well, by all accounts what Colonel Shaffer is saying is he submitted the book under the standard review process to his immediate bosses, but when higher-ups here at the Pentagon in military intelligence saw it all, they said, no, there's still classified information in there and some of it has to come out. If you want to buy "Operation Dark Heart," you now have to buy the second printing of it -- the one with those blacked-out passages -- John, Kiran.

CHETRY: That's interesting. I just checked on the iPad to see if they had it, the original copy, and they actually note that this has been redacted at the request of the Defense Department. But you know how the Internet is. I mean, how long do you think the original can show up there?

STARR: Well, that's a question people are already scouring the internet, for sure, looking to see if they can buy one of those initial copies that may have escaped the military's destruction. I think you can be - it's a safe bet to - to assume people are going to be looking to see how fast they can grab one of those copies.

In cyberspace, in the 21st Century, it's awfully hard to destroy information forever - John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: Yes. And one thing about the internet, it is forever.

Barbara Starr for us this morning. Barbara, thanks.

Well, football ticket prices are up, in some cases, way up, even in this bad economy. Why are you paying more? We'll break it all down for you, coming right up.

Sixteen minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

Time for "Minding Your Business" and, this morning, we're in the baby business for a moment. Our own Christine Romans is back. She's here with a new addition to her family, and there he is. Look at Mr. Blue Eyes, Edward Arthur.

He was born back on July 11th. He joins his older brother. Billy's holding him right there. And then the little guy - he was two, Fin (ph). He probably just can't stand it, right? He lost mommy's attention, so - CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

CHETRY: -- he didn't want to be in the picture.

ROMANS: He wasn't in the picture. He's - he's got to get his own deal going on.

No. If I could get all three of them in together for one picture, it would be a miracle. It hasn't happened yet, Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, welcome back. We're happy to have you.

ROMANS: Thank you.

CHETRY: You were dearly missed.

ROMANS: Thank you.

CHETRY: And congratulations.

ROMANS: Thanks, Kiran.

ROBERTS: Yes. We were just - we were remarking a second ago. She - she has this uncanny ability to - she has a child and it's like you look like you were never ever pregnant.

ROMANS: Oh, stop. No.

MAX KELLERMAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Even you were pregnant, it was just like from here up.

ROBERTS: Yes. Exactly.

ROMANS: Oh, keep -

KELLERMAN: You don't - you don't -

ROMANS: Stop. No, no - keep going. Keep going.

ROBERTS: You're a pro at having babies.

Welcome back.

ROMANS: Thanks.

ROBERTS: It's great to see you.

ROMANS: Thanks. I love it. I love being the money mommy. I love it.

ROBERTS: Yes. Well, we'll be talking more about this in the months to come. No question about that.

ROMANS: Yes.

ROBERTS: All right. But, first of all to "Minding Your Business", finding a good deal on NFL tickets this season may require a well-executed offensive play. Christine is here to talk about it, as well as Max Kellerman.

So when you take a look at what's happening across the board in the NFL, ticket prices are up about four percent, average of $76.47 now for a ticket, and you wonder, in this economy? How - how is that being supported?

KELLERMAN: Well, it's - it's concentrated in a few number of teams, either that have had success or in the northeast - the Giants, the Jets, and the Patriots, for instance. A lot of the increase comes from those teams. And - and in the Giants and the Jets' case, they move it - they moved into a new stadium, and that's part of paying for the stadium.

ROMANS: It's the American way - debt, debt, debt, debt, right? I mean, a lot of these teams took on a great deal of debt to pay for these big, new, lavish stadiums during the bubble, when everything was looking - money was cheap, right? And now it's not so cheap and they have to pay for themselves, and you're looking at -

I wanted to show you, John, some of the other tickets, the highest ticket prices. $76 a ticket. I mean, that's remarkable when the average family income - median earnings is $740 a week. When you take four people, that's pretty tough.

You look at some of these - Yankees are on there; Patriots are at the top, $117; the Jets; then the Giants; and the Cowboys; then my hometown team, the Bears, at $93 -

KELLERMAN: And this doesn't take into account, by the way, like PSLs.

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

KELLERMAN: The personal seat licenses.

ROBERTS: Yes.

KELLERMAN: In order to get the right to buy the tickets.

ROBERTS: How much was the -

KELLERMAN: Tens of thousands of dollars.

ROBERTS: How much did the PSL of Giants (INAUDIBLE)?

KELLERMAN: Tens of thousands of dollars. There are personal seat licenses that are tens of thousands of dollars, for the rights to buy the ticket because, as Christine mentioned, this occurred during this absurd, you know, sense that this growth was going to last forever.

ROBERTS: Now, the Giants stadium is owned by the state, right? It was built by the state, but the Giants and the Jets have put up their ticket - price ticket sales as collateral, isn't it?

KELLERMAN: Right.

ROBERTS: Yes. Some crazy -

(CROSSTALK)

KELLERMAN: The thing about - the thing about - the - football's a lot - you know, baseball and football are actually equally popular in this country. It doesn't always seem so because football does such enormous ratings.

But they do those TV ratings because they're one-tenth as many - you know, there's 162 baseball games to 16 football games. So each game is 10 times as popular -

ROMANS: Right.

KELLERMAN: -- so they rate 10 times as well.

The flip side of that is if you have a new stadium and you're trying to sell tickets, there are eight home games in an NFL season, there are 81 in a baseball season.

ROMANS: But if you're going to spend $76 just for one ticket, so imagine a family of four, how much that is. That's what? A third of your take-home pay if you're the average family, right?

ROBERTS: Oh, we - we talked - we talked about the - the family budget being busted if you're paying -

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

ROBERTS: -- $100 for four people to go see a baseball game.

ROMANS: But you can sit at home and see these crazy, awesome graphics. You can see these crazy - I mean, that - what they can do with the computer-generated stuff on watching a football game. But you are insulted if you go to a stadium because you sit there. You have to wait -

(CROSSTALK)

KELLERMAN: By the way, you can't necessarily - you can't necessarily sit at home and see it because if the attendance falls below a certain -

ROMANS: Right. Right.

ROBERTS: Which is a point I was about to bring up, because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jacksonville Jaguars -

ROMANS: That's right.

ROBERTS: -- are having a problem. They're not selling out their stadium, and so they're facing blackouts. So now they're - they're trying to give people incentives to bring them in the door.

So here you have an embarrassment of riches in one area and then you have other teams that are starting to (INAUDIBLE).

ROMANS: Is it like - is it like the American economy, then? And it's this - this inequity building within sports?

ROBERTS: The haves and the have-nots. Yes.

KELLERMAN: Yes. You have to tell me, Christine. Is it?

ROMANS: Well, it's happening in the American economy. I wonder if - if professional sports is a reflection of that?

But I think that you have the American family economics is completely changing, but you still have what looks like some of these big teams, at least, their sports economics is still bubble economics.

KELLERMAN: They had no choice -

ROMANS: Right.

KELLERMAN: -- really. You have - if you have to pay off that debt.

ROBERTS: And it all depends, too, on performance, right? Because the New Orleans Saints, who - who - you know, who was - who was going to go out and watch them? You know, their average ticket price now, including resales, $400 to get in to see them.

ROMANS: But if you're pulling back in your family, pull back every place else, do you still take your kid to go see the Bears? If you can figure out to put - if there's one - if there's one luxury expense, is that what it's going to be?

KELLERMAN: Yes. If you live in Chicago -

ROMANS: That's - sports is different.

KELLERMAN: -- damn right you go see the Bears, you know? You got - talk about have no choice. It's a religion.

ROBERTS: Yes. Well, you know, and if you're a family from, you know, New York or New Jersey that wants to go see a football game and you can't afford to get into the Giants, think about maybe if you're going to Florida on vacation and going to see Tampa Bay or Jacksonville. They just might pay you to show up.

Great to see you guys this morning. Thanks for coming in.

For more on the hike in NFL prices and the Money News that Matters Most, just go to CNNMoney.com - Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, still to come on the Most News in the Morning, bitter campaign battles no longer being fought on the airwaves. Now the fight for votes, in some cases, is taking to Twitter.

Twenty-four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Well, you can zing your opponents now in 140 characters or less. Instead of using Twitter to get out their messages, some campaigns are using it to go on the attack and to insult this election season.

ROBERTS: One sample tweet - how about this? Coked-up stimulus monkeys. Enough said? Jim Acosta has been tracking the campaign Twitter wars and joins us now. And Jim, it's getting ugly out there.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's getting ugly, and, John and Kiran, I don't think I can sum this up in 140 characters or less. But I'll give it my best shot.

If you use Twitter then you know political campaigns are tweeting all the times these days. Sometimes the tweets are positive and many times they are not. They are the latest form of attack ad and they can get personal. Welcome to the world of hash tag politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): It was another viral moment in a vicious race. Supporters of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scuffling with backers of Republican rival Sharron Angle at a candidate forum. But even after tempers cooled, the fight was far from over. It had moved to Twitter, where one of Angle's campaign managers posted this video, the clip shows Reid supporters shouting at Angle, using less than 140 characters that Angle staffer tweeted, check out the video here of Reidbots screaming and heckling.

LARRY SABATO, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: It was inevitable that negative politics was going to transform itself into social media that exactly what's happened. Now, you don't even need a complete sentence to change a campaign.

ACOSTA (on camera): Just less than 140 characters.

SABATO: Less than 140 characters. You can even - you can tweet a phrase and it can change a campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, Harry Reid votes to give special tax breaks in -

ACOSTA (voice-over): These days, attack tweets are almost as common as attack ads. Take this Reid tweet, "Sharron Angle's mocks health coverage for autism." Then there's a link to a video.

SHARRON ANGLE (R), NEVADA SENATE CANDIDATE: Everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under autism. So that's a mandate that you have to pay for.

ACOSTA: Or this Angle tweet, "Harry Reid's plan to save the Nevada economy: coked up stimulus monkeys," a reference to stimulus money being used for testing drugs on primates. This tweet from an Angle staffer gets personal referring to Reid's campaign managers as 13- year-old girls and this tweet claiming from one of Reid's advisers claims Angle caught in multiple lies. MICHAEL PATRICK LEAHY, ELECTIONDAYTEAPARTY.COM: I think we're at the beginning of a new era in American political history.

ACOSTA: Michael Leahy is a Tea Party activist, who pioneered a political use for another feature on twitter, the hash tack, that's the pound sign placed in front of common phrases or acronyms. Leahy's hash tag, TCOT - Top Conservatives on Twitter has become a haven for Tea Partiers.

LEAHY: If you go to search Twitter.com right now and just put in pound TCOT, you'll see what they call as the TCOT feed. And about - well, 10 tweets every minute now is the pace at which there are TCOT tweets. It shows that there is a vibrant online Conservative community.

ACOSTA: Leahy ranks Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin as the top three Conservatives on Twitter based on their number of followers. When Palin with more than a quarter million follower tweets, she makes news.

SABATO: She can put out a tweet and generate headlines in the traditional media. Why would you go to the extra trouble?

ACOSTA (on camera): She'll have all these reporters retweeting what she just tweeted a few minutes ago.

SABATO: And writing a story about it. You know, you -- and that's -- the retweeting is how it really gets out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Twitter is also an effective place to raise money. Candidates can announce what's called a money bomb on Twitter, directing supporters to their campaign Web sites where a contribution can be made. Just think of Twitter as the latest weapon in the new media, new social media arsenal that is out there on the campaign trail these days.

And, John and Kiran, it's not just the Harry Reid and Sharron Angle campaign, just about every campaign is doing it these days. Christine O'Donnell, after her big primary win, couple of weeks ago, announced a money bomb, raised a ton of money. All of these candidates are doing it these days. It is really sort of the next step in campaigning in this -- in this new era.

CHETRY: It's -- because it's very easy to get just your message out. It's a one-way conversation. Columnists, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: That's right. It gets all of us talking about it.

CHETRY: Yes, they follow people's tweets. And the fact that you can add video adds a whole other element, as well.

ACOSTA: Absolutely, yes. ROBERTS: They're really --

ACOSTA: It's going to keep going on from there. I mean, it's not going to stop. And it's just going -- it's going to be amazing to see who comes up with the next, you know, sort of buzz application for social media.

ROBERTS: It really is amazing as Larry Sabato was saying. People can, you know, commit news on Twitter.

CHETRY: That's right.

ACOSTA: Yes.

ROBERTS: Who would've thought that would have been possible? Jim Acosta --

ACOSTA: I don't think so.

ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us this morning -- Jim, thanks.

ACOSTA: You bet.

ROBERTS: Your top stories this morning, as we cross the half hour.

River rising in Wisconsin -- a levee in real danger of failing this morning. Basements and living rooms filling with water after a foot of rain came down last week. One hundred and fifty residents in the area have been ordered out. Emergency crews say they're afraid that they may not be able to reach them soon.

CHETRY: Also, embattled megachurch pastor, Eddie Long, publicly addressed the accusations of sexual abuse for the first time. In front of his congregation on the Sunday morning service, he said he's not a perfect man but that he's ready to fight. He didn't categorically deny the charges, either, though. Four men have now filed suit against Long, claiming he lured them into sexual relationships when they were teenagers.

ROBERTS: An aid ship carrying medical equipment textbooks, fishing nets and children's toys is heading to the Gaza Strip right now. The activists from Israel, the United States, Germany, and Britain say they will not resist if Israel tries to stop them. The ship set from Cyprus on Sunday.

CHETRY: Well, new this morning, the push to keep the Mideast peace talks alive. Just hours ago, Israel's 10-month settlement construction ban expired. Hundreds of Israeli settlers in the West Bank are celebrating.

ROBERTS: Palestinians have threatened to quit the peace talks now if more settlements are built.

Our Paula Hancocks is live in Jerusalem. And, Paula, the first thing that comes to mind is -- wow, those peace talks didn't very last long. But has construction started anywhere at this point?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, yes, it has. We've had a team driving around the West Bank this morning. And we've seen at least in two settlements and, of course, further up field, there has been a construction restarting.

This is exactly what the settlers told us on Sunday that they were going to do this. We were in a couple of settlements where they had a ground breaking ceremony. They had a countdown. They had balloons released. It was a made-for-TV moment.

They were celebrating what they saw as a victory that this settlement freeze had not been continued. And so, certainly, across the West Bank, what we're seeing today is pockets of construction. It may be slightly tempered down because we're in the middle of the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth. So less construction will happen.

But towards the end of this week, we could see it go back to normal. And certainly, we've heard from (INAUDIBLE) that there's 13,000 buildings that have already been approved. So, they're expecting those to be started quite soon.

CHETRY: Also, what does it mean for the latest round of peace talks? I mean, I know this is a hugely contentious issue out there. But does it just take anything off the table at this point?

HANCOCKS: Well, Kiran, the fact is, here, that both sides need to save face, to be able to stay within these peace talks. And remember, we're not even a month through these peace talks yet. So, if they collapse, it would be a huge embarrassment and pretty dangerous for the United States. They've invested a lot of foreign policy, credibility into this.

Now, we're expecting nothing from the Israeli prime minister, no official announcement about the freeze. He made an announcement last night, a statement saying he hopes the Palestinian president will stay at these peace talks, but he didn't even mention the word settlement. He's going to hope this will blow over and people will forget about it and move on to something else.

From the Palestinian president's point of view, he's hoping that he will be promised something. He's coming under some pressure internally, because, of course, remember, he said, if they keep building, we'll walk away from the peace talks. They're building -- we can see that they're building and yet (AUDIO BREAK) the pressure is really on him at the moment.

CHETRY: All right. Paula Hancocks for us this morning -- thank you so much.

Well, a hero pilot made an emergency landing with just one wheel. Passengers aboard that flight over the weekend are joining us in the studio. They'll take us through the ordeal. They were running the cell phone the whole entire time and they got video from the heart- racing moments.

It's 35 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back.

It was anything but a routine landing. It was a Delta flight. It was starting in Atlanta, Georgia, was headed to White Plains, New York, which is a suburb just outside of the city -- forced to make a landing at New York's JFK Airport without its right wheel. That's right, landing gear failure.

The pilot said to the flight attendants and the 64 passengers onboard, "Prepare for the worst."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brace for impact now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heads down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down! Heads down! Stay down! Heads down!

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There it was -- all caught on tape. And we get an exclusive firsthand account this morning of what it felt like to be on that plane and what it was like and the dramatic video, as well, that was shot by Chase Benzenberg and Alessandro Albero.

Thanks to both of you for being with us this morning.

ALESSANDRO ALBERO, PASSENGER ON FLIGHT THAT MADE EMERGENCY LANDING: God morning.

CHETRY: So, you guys were buddies. You were flying from Georgia back to White Plains.

And when was the first indication that you figured out something was wrong with this flight?

ALBERO: The first indication was while we were circling Westchester Airport, we circled for a good 20 minutes. We were joking around with each other saying, I don't know if he knows where the landing strip is. And then they made the announcement on the loud speaker.

CHETRY: And what did they say?

CHASE BENZENBERG, PASSENGER ON FLIGHT THAT MADE EMERGENCY LANDING: They said we're going to be making an emergency landing. They didn't really have many details except there was no landing gear. So, we're envisioning, you know, belly slide the whole way with sparks, but they actually came out later and said that there -- it was only the right rear landing gear that would not down, so it'd be hitting the wing, which is what actually happened.

CHETRY: And what did it feel like to land?

ALBERO: Landing was actually quite smooth. The pilot did a wonderful job. We came down and, you know, the plane tipped slightly and the sparks came out, you guys saw the video. It was pretty intense. But they did a wonderful job.

CHETRY: You know, it was funny is that -- I mean, if there can be anything funny in this heart-stopping situation for you guys is that you clearly heard the flight attendant. You could hear the stress in her voice. She was saying, "Stay down, heads down." Clearly, you guys weren't listening.

(CROSSTALK)

ALBERO: Well, we tried to follow directions. But she actually made it more intense than I think it really was. But that's what the right thing to do in that situation is, though, so you don't bang your head. We didn't know what to expect if we were going to flip or anything. So we're just following directions at that point while filming, as well.

CHETRY: Yes. So, you had your head down, you just had your hand up?

BENZENBERG: Yes, Alessandro --

ALBERO: Yes, just kind of --

CHETRY: Looking out the window.

You said you two were relatively calm. There were some people on the flight that were very, very frightened. Tell us what was going on with some of the other passengers.

BENZENBERG: Well, I think the initial announcement, I saw a lady sitting in front of me that just had tears coming down and she was holding her husband's hand, behind her.

And also, once the flight attendants were reading out instructions about emergency landing, this life preserver, another lady behind me was reaching for a life jacket saying, I can't get it. It's stuck. I was just saying, you know, we don't need that right now. We're not going into water, just listen to the instructions and try to remain calm. So --

CHETRY: So, people were frightened. And then if we just could hear, really quick, again the clapping that took place once you guys landed. Let's listen to that part of it again because I'm sure there was an immense amount of relief once you knew you were OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Head down! Stay down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: You just heard it really quickly from your -- from your cell phone video. What happened as soon as everybody realized we're OK?

ALBERO: You guys heard it. Everybody was clapping. We -- you know, immediately evacuated the plane and we were all on the tarmac. Everybody was, you know, hugging and shaking hands and just happy that we all made it. The pilot came out and thanked us. We thanked him. It was just a really incredible few moments afterwards.

CHETRY: How big of a plane?

BENZENBERG: It's only about 64 people in total. So, we were actually the last two seats before the back. Alessandro, you know, was concerned that he was right next to the wing and he's got to see the whole thing. So, we don't know if there's going to be sparks through the window and engine flying through or something.

CHETRY: Right. You don't know what's happening. I mean, this was the best-case scenario because it's important to point out. You guys landed at JFK actually because the runway was longer. So you still had to make the trek back there.

But also, no one was hurt at all, right? There were no injuries. So that's lucky because, you know, it could have turned out differently.

You make this trip a lot for business? I mean, are you going to think twice again when you get on one of these planes?

BENZENBERG: I'm actually flying on Wednesday to Florida. I'm going to have to go out for work. So, I think I got that over with. That's a once in a lifetime thing. So, I feel pretty safe flying.

ALBERO: Hopefully. Hopefully.

CHETRY: So, would you ever -- I mean, would you describe it that you guys were in a plane crash?

BENZENBERG: If we wanted to, you know. Initially, we would say that we survived a plane crash. But it's kind of -- after it was all finished, I almost hoped it was a little more bumpier or something just so we had a cooler story. But I'm just happy we're safe.

CHETRY: That's easy to say now --

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: You're mad. You guys wished you landed on the Hudson.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: The other interesting thing also is that you ran out of cell phone battery, right? Because you were taping and then the last your loved ones heard is that you had to make an emergency landing and then your phone died.

BENZENBERG: Right.

ALBERO: Yes, that was --

CHETRY: Come on, guys.

ALBERO: That was pretty intense.

BENZENBERG: Well, I got a phone call shortly after that on his phone and I got to explain the situation.

CHETRY: That you were fine.

ALBERO: I still had battery, so he had to call his girlfriend from my phone.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Well, all's well that ends well, and you guys have the tape to show its. So, thanks for joining us this morning. Glad everyone is safe and sound.

ALBERO: Thank you. Thank you for having us.

CHETRY: Sure.

Chase Benzenberg, as well as Alessandro Albero -- thanks for coming in this morning -- John.

ROBERTS: Wow. What an ordeal. Glad it was them, not me.

Thirty-six days to the election and the Democratic heavyweights are hitting the campaign trail, trying to help embattled Democrats. But can they rally voters? Details coming up from the CNNPolitics.com desk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now at 47 minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us in Atlanta, and Rob, an awful lot of rain out there today.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, on the east coast especially. All that rain was in the Midwest last week. Its slow- moving system dumped almost a foot of rain in some parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the result is the flooding that we're seeing right now. Rivers cresting for the most part over the weekend, but the levees are in stress mode here in Portage, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin River cresting at a record over 20 feet yesterday, and it's going to be over flood stage here for the next several days.

So, where the levee hasn't failed may very well do that in the next day or two. So, we're very concerned about that. We also have flood watches and warnings that are posted for the east coast because of the rain that's happening right now. Several inches of rainfall on top of what we already seeing from Georgia across the Carolinas and also getting up towards the northeast. So, this wide swath of moisture with a little bit of a tropical connection here from the panhandle of Florida right up through the Carolinas.

Some of these rain showers are actually thunderstorms with some really heavy rainfall. And this is all stretching up towards D.C. and New York. So, you'll see the rainfall in your area on the increase throughout the day today. And that certainly will cause some travel delays given landing gear is all operable. We're looking at hot conditions out west. Check out some of this -- actually, we had temperatures that were up and over 100 degrees out west.

It'll be hot again today, but these are some of the numbers for rainfall yesterday. Macon, Georgia, 4.23. Now, it's been pretty dry across the southeast for this summer. So, this rainfall certainly welcome, but too much of a good thing at one time, obviously, you get a little bit in the way of some headaches there. I want to touch on what's going on in the tropics. Remember Matthew? We didn't really know what Matthew was going to do once it made landfall across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Well, Matthew pretty much is dead, but there's an area of low pressure, very broad area of low pressure over the Northwestern Caribbean, and this orange box is what we think may very well develop into our next tropical depression. Right now, the National Hurricane Center giving a 30 percent chance of developing over the next two days, but if we let it percolate longer than that and that's what we think is going to happen, it may very well be our next depression or storm here before the week is done. That's the latest check on weather. More about this Wisconsin flooding at the top of the hour.

ROBERTS: It doesn't look like anything's moving in the tropics there. Do you have a direction on where that storm may go?

MARCIANO: Well, that's the problem. It's just kind of sitting there and percolating and because of that we're concerned about the fact that something may develop here in the next day or two. But once it does, this time of year they tend to drift either west or north and that would bring it into the Gulf of Mexico. So, we'll keep a close eye on it.

CHETRY: All right. We'll check back in with you, Rob. Thanks.

MARCIANO: You got it.

CHETRY: There are some new poll numbers out this morning on the president's job performance and why that could erase his Democratic majority in Congress. The details from the CNNPolitics.com desk coming up. Forty-nine minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Welcome back. Time for the Most Politics in the Morning, and crossing our Political Ticker this Monday morning, President Obama hits the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections, and he's not alone. Candidates are tapping heavy hitters in the home stretch.

CHETRY: That's right. Our senior political editor, Mark Preston's live at the CNNPolitics.com desk with more details for us on it. Hey, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Kiran. Hey, John. You're absolutely right. You know that we're close to Election Day when you see that all the politicians are leaving Washington. They're out on the campaign trail. As you said, John, President Obama starts off the week politically in Wisconsin on Tuesday for the first of four major campaign rallies. This rally's going to take place in Madison, Wisconsin.

We'll see Joe Biden today up in New Hampshire. He's going to be campaigning on behalf of Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hoch, two Democrats running for Congress and the Senate seat up there. We'll also see Haley Barbour, the Mississippi governor who oversees the whole campaign effort for the Republican Governors Association. He is going to be in New Hampshire today for John Steven. Let me just take through the rest of the week.

Mitt Romney will be in Florida for Rick Scott who's running for governor down there. We'll also see Mike Pence in Iowa, and we'll see Tim Pawlenty in New Hampshire. And if you look at the whole count of that, John and Kiran, I'll tell you what, it shows me that there is at least four potential Republican presidential candidates who are going to be campaigning for the midterm elections over the next week in very, very important states.

But moving on, let's talk about the problems that Democrats face right now. A new CNN Opinion Research Corporation Poll shows that President Obama's approval rating has hit an all-time low in the CNN ORC poll. It comes in at 42 percent. A terrible number right now as we're heading into the midterm elections. But even worse news, perhaps, for Democrats is that when matched up against Republicans in the generic ballot question right now, the choice for Congress for American voters at this point in time, 53 percent for Republicans, 44 percent for Democrats.

So, again, another damning number for Democrats as we head into the midterm elections. And let's close it with this. Rahm Emanuel clearly is looking at running for the mayor of Chicago. Of course, he's President Obama's chief of staff. Well, he was the topic of conversation a little bit yesterday, including David Axelrod who is the senior strategist for President Obama. He said that Rahm Emanuel is working through some personal issues right now.

But whether he wants to run or not run, but he is drawn to running for the mayor of Chicago. On our own program "State of the Union," Candy Crowley asked Dick Durbin who's the senior senator of Illinois if he would endorse Rahm Emanuel for mayor. Dick Durbin said not at this time. So, again, a lot of political talk. Emanuel looking a little beyond the midterms it appears while Democrats are laser focused on the midterms -- John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: If Rahm Emanuel knows how to do anything, it's win an election. There's no question about that.

PRESTON: Yes, no question. I mean, he is -- what's that famous story about how we sent (ph) a fish wrapped up in a newspaper to a political opponent? So, he plays to win. No question.

CHETRY: You know, we talked about Stephen Colbert and his testimony before congress on Friday. It seemed to appear as though he was going to do it straight, right, as himself, and I guess the written testimony he put in seemed to be straight, as well, and then, it was a very different story when he showed up causing a lot of controversy.

PRESTON: It was. And we saw the House Minority Leader, John Boehner, say that it was inappropriate, but what it do would certainly drew attention to this whole idea and issue of illegal immigrants. And you know, as you know, you get sworn into office. And, you know, if you do the wrong thing, you could get in trouble, but Colbert got out of Washington unscathed, so to speak.

ROBERTS: All right. Mark Preston for us this morning. Mark, thanks so much. We're going to check back with Mark in our next hour. And a reminder for all the latest political news, go to our website CNNPolitics.com.

CHETRY: Talking about the levee break in Wisconsin. We have a lot of other stories including Bishop Long speaking out in front of his congregation about the sex assault allegations. We're going to be right back with much more on that. It's 57 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)