Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Qantas Airbus Makes Emergency Landing in Singapore; What's Next for Nancy Pelosi?; What Will the New Congress Do?; Where America Goes After the Election; "Slurpee Summit" for Obama and Boehner; Obama vs. Likely GOP Contenders in 2012

Aired November 04, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on this Thursday, November 4th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us on this Thursday. Here are this morning's top stories.

Some terrifying moments in the sky. Passengers onboard, a Qantas Airways jumbo jet, one of those super jumbos saying that one of the plane's engines exploded and part of it fell off in midflight. The airplane made an emergency landing in Singapore just minutes after taking off. And, now, as a precaution, Qantas is grounding its entire fleet of Airbus A380. We're live with the very latest.

CHETRY: Also, what's next for Nancy Pelosi now that the Democrats have been dismantled in the House? The nation's first female speaker hasn't decided if she wants to be the next minority leader, and if she does, will fellow Democrats back her? We got a live report from Capitol Hill ahead.

ROBERTS: And new guidelines for treating concussions in athletes. Major doctors group says any player suspected of having a concussion should be benched until they could be seen by a qualified physician. We'll ask our chief medical correspondent, just happens to be a neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, about it.

CHETRY: Up first, though, earthquake victims in Haiti now bracing for a hurricane. Tropical storm Tomas is regaining strength and is expected to intensify into a category one storm again before it strikes Haiti sometime tonight or tomorrow morning.

ROBERTS: New this morning, it could be more than 10 inches of rain along with devastating mudslides. The U.S. Navy is already on the way. The USS Iwo Jima will provide humanitarian support. The storm hit the West Indies over the weekend. Seven people missing in St. Lucia this morning. A dozen people have already been killed by the storm.

CHETRY: Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center tracking the last forecast. Has anything changed?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not in the past few hours. But it now is 50 miles an hour as a tropical storm. Yesterday, you might remember, it was just a tropical depression. The forecast has just changed a little bit as well.

The center of it right there, a lot of the storms to the north and center of it which is typical this time of year. It's about 150 south of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 300 miles south of Port-au- Prince, Haiti. It's made that turn north h north-northwesterly at 70 miles an hour. Here's the forecast of the national hurricane center, they have nudged it just a hair to the left. That's good news, certainly, for Haiti.

The bad news, it's still on the right side of this thing. So that's the bad side. The other slice of bad news is they do expect it to strengthen potentially to hurricane strength of category one stature.

But it doesn't really matter. When you look at tent cities, it doesn't take a hurricane to do some serious damage. You talk about evacuating people? Where are they going to evacuate? So even tropical storm force winds is going to be enough to take down what you're looking at right now.

So that's the huge fear. That's why they're preparing and international aid is already on the way there. Regardless of what the track is or how strong it gets, John and Kiran, we're going to see problems with this, no doubt about it.

ROBERTS: We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for all the people. Rob, thanks so much.

Breaking news overnight, a super jumbo jet forced to make an emergency landing because one of its engines essentially ripped apart minutes after takeoff. The company has since grounded its fleet of Airbus 380s as a precaution.

And 450 people were on board when one of the four planes partially came unglued over Indonesia. You can see part of the engine cowling there is gone. The front part has been moved from its original position. The double-decker jet was headed from Singapore to Sydney when passengers say it sounds like an explosion just minutes after takeoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ULF WASHBUSCH, PASSENGER ON THE PLANE (via telephone): You can see on the pictures there was engine damage that happened five minutes or so after takeoff from Singapore on Qantas 382. I heard a loud bang. I was sitting on that side. The engine shot up pretty much immediately from the flight deck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Reports say debris from the A-380 was found on the ground. A witness claims some of it lands on his home. Qantas has not said whether that engine damage might have been caused by volcanic ash from Mount Merapi which has been erupting for the past ten days, but at the moment they don't think it was a factor. CHETRY: Let's go to Richard Quest, he joins us live from London. Has anyone been able to confirm what caused this airbus to fail in this A380?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No word whatsoever. Rolls Royce, the manufacturers, said they're working with the airlines involved. The other operators including Singapore say they are waiting on what may have caused this incident.

What we essentially have here is an uncontained engine failure, which is a posh way of saying a part of the engine exploded, or part of the engine failed was probably ingested into the rest of the engine and then exploded outwards.

And the worrying part, looking at these pictures that we're seeing this morning, is that as the engine, the cell, that part of the engine that's designed to hold or contain such an incident, as that failed, debris actually went up through the wing.

It's by good grace and good management, it doesn't appear at that fuel lines or fuel tanks were ruptured, because anything that happens, Kiran, with an engine which is sitting only meters away from the fuel tanks is a very serious matter.

ROBERTS: Richard, this is an aircraft with which you're very familiar. You got to actually fly in it. This engine that was on the 380, was it designed specifically for this aircraft? I assume it's been rigorously tested in the past?

QUEST: Yes. I mean, it's a derivation of the RV-211 engine which they designed for the thrust needed for the A380. It is the engine that's got more than 50 percent of planes. Only Emirates uses the GE equivalents, the GFE-700.

There have been minor problems. I would not overstate them. I was speaking to Singapore Airlines this morning, and they said they've had a pretty good record with it. Its reliability has been near perfect. They are not unhappy with it.

What the Australian investigators will be looking at, there be three or four areas. Firstly, why did the engine fail? Secondly, why didn't the cell of the enjoin indication contain it once it happened? And thirdly, the superb airmanship of the pilots, because, let's face it, he was landing a planes that what heavy, that was full, probably close to its maximum landing weight and using it without one of the reverse thrusters on the left side of the aircraft.

So a challenging landing for the pilots involved, but, as they will tell you, one that they practice frequently.

CHETRY: It is amazing. Get news, nobody was hurt, more than 420 people on the plane. Richard Quest, we'll hopefully find out more information. Thanks so much.

Also new this morning, Mexican police say two students from the University of Texas El Paso were gunned down in Ciudad Juarez this week. One was a U.S. citizen, the other a Mexican. The border city is one of the deadliest. Last month alone, gunmen killed 350 people in Ciudad Juarez.

ROBERTS: American authorities seized 30 tons of marijuana after discovering an underground tunnel that connected drug warehouses. The 600-mile was equipped with railway systems to move the drug. It was not a good day for the cartels.

CHETRY: Used cars, new jobs. Car Max, the nation's largest used car chains says it's hiring people to fill more than 1,200 jobs across the country, mostly in sales and service. The company says they need it to meet seasonal staffing needs but also part of an expansion.

ROBERTS: And yet another delay for the space shuttle "Discovery." NASA pushing its launch back over 24 hours over concerns about the weather. Discovery had been scheduled to launch this afternoon. The trip to the international space station is Discovery's 39th and final flight. They want to keep her on the ground a little while longer.

CHETRY: It's going to be bad up and down the east coast.

ROBERTS: One of those days.

CHETRY: Still to come, you better have a receipt, ID, your first born. Why returning something is going to be a lot harder this holiday season.

ROBERTS: And Nancy Pelosi's next move. Her days as House speaker are numbered. Will she seek the minority leadership position or like others before her, will she hang it up? Brianna Keilar live from Capitol Hill this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's 12 minutes now after the hour.

If Nancy Pelosi plans to remain her party's leader in the House of Representatives, she's not letting on, not yet anyway. Nancy Pelosi's reign as the nation's first female speaker is history now that Republicans have seized control of the House. She's not saying if she will seek the role of minority leader. But she did tell ABC's Diane Sawyer that she's proud of her service as the top House Democrat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: What are you going to do next?

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: First of all today, I'm talking to my members who courageously fought the fight, carried the banner, took the tough votes. That's what I'm doing today. When I'm toward the end of doing that, I'll start thinking about what I'll do next. But it's never been about me.

SAWYER: No regrets? PELOSI: No regrets because we believe we did the right thing. We worked very hard in our campaigns to convey that to the American people.

SAWYER: Looking back, you said this will not be a footnote.

PELOSI: Right. There is no footnote. Well, being the first woman speaker, breaking the marble ceiling is pretty important. I cherish that, I relish that. But it's in its time and place and time to move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Brianna Keilar is live from Capitol Hill. What are you hearing from the Republican camp? Do you think she'll move on?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it's hard to tell, because we're not hearing from any timetable coming from her office. A lot of her aides don't even know where she is on this.

You heard the speaker there saying she's trying to gauge support among the Democrats and the House of Representatives. Even though we saw on the campaign trail there were a number of moderate Democrats who said, you know what, even if we retain the majority, we're not going to vote for Nancy Pelosi to be speaker again, she's actually has enjoyed the majority of votes in the House of Representatives.

But what's interesting now, we talked yesterday how Republican are starting to vie for the leadership positions, and obviously they're going to be in the majority so you're going to see that. But right now, Democrats are in a holding pattern waiting to see what Speaker Pelosi does before they start vying for leadership positions.

Is she going to remain at the helm of Democrats and be the minority leader. Is she going to get out of Congress altogether? These are the questions we've waiting to answer in the coming days, John.

ROBERTS: And with power split in Congress, one of the big questions we were talking about yesterday and continue to for weeks to come is whether or not they'll actually work together. The president raised the idea, well, maybe, we could have some kind of a meeting in the future. What was he talking about?

KEILAR: Some kind of meeting, I think it was a Slurpee summit. This is something that a reporter at his press conference asked about, because as you'll recall, one of the things on the campaign trail leading up to the midterm elections, President Obama was saying the Democrats are working to dig the car out of the ditch that Republicans had crushed into the ditch. That's what he said. And he said Republicans were just kind of sitting back drinking a Slurpee.

Well, he kind of had to eat his words. Or I guess you could say drink his words at his press conference yesterday. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President, I want to ask if you're going to have John Boehner over for a Slurpee, but I actually have a serious question.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I might serve those. They're delicious drinks. The Slurpee summit. That's good. I like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It's a little humor here. And actually the spokesman for the soon-to-be speaker John Boehner saying that let's hope the president will be willing to work with us, to cut spending, stop the tax hikes and get our economy working again. And he said, then we can all go get Slurpees together. The new wicked apple flavor sounds awesome.

So this is kind of the funny stuff. And there's this talk of bipartisanship with obviously the change in leadership in the House of Representatives. But the question is, are they really going to get along?

ROBERTS: Yes.

KEILAR: And what you do see is that Republicans are going to be shifting a little more to the right. They've got more conservative members in. Democrats have lost some of their more moderate members. You would expect them as a whole to be shifting a little more to the left. That makes people think, you know what, maybe they aren't going to get along. I think spending cuts, one of the things we've be talking about, John, maybe one area where they can perhaps reached some agreement because there's so much appetite to reduce some of the spending. But I don't think anyone has massive expectations of sweeping bipartisanship here.

ROBERTS: No. But at least the president doing his bit for the economy there, putting in an endorsement for the Slurpee. Sales probably to the roof.

KEILAR: You know that more -- completely more people are going to be getting Slurpees. I think I read something about that. As you know, I like the Coca-Cola flavor.

ROBERTS: As the president said, they are a delicious drink.

KEILAR: They are.

ROBERTS: Brianna Keilar, thanks so much.

CHETRY: The Slurpee. The sugar bomb.

ROBERTS: It's going to be the trending thing in the next couple of days.

CHETRY: You watch.

Seventeen minutes past the hour right now. President Obama versus insert Republican here. How the president faired against some of the most likely contenders in 2012, including Sarah Palin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back. Twenty minutes past the hour. Time now for some of the stories that had us talking this morning in the newsroom.

After spending more than two months trapped underground, Chilean miner Edison Pena is ready for his close-up. I guess you could say. He's going to appear on Dave Letterman's show. He'll also be running in the New York City marathon on Sunday. Organizers are putting the finishing touches on the course. They're painting blue -- the blue line that guides the runners through the 26.2-mile course. Pena was originally invited as a spectator, but he said, no, no, no, I want to actually run it. He was nicknamed the runner for running up to six miles a day through the mine's tunnels when he was trapped. He was also the Elvis fan.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHETRY: Well, apparently, he's going to Graceland.

ROBERTS: He's going to Graceland, Graceland. I'm hopeful that they're not painting the blue line today, because it will just get washed away.

CHETRY: It will.

ROBERTS: Bad weather in New York today.

Well, now you can pay less to go to the game with a paper bag on your head and feel good about the whole thing. The New York Mets announced that after two losing seasons in a row, they're slashing ticket prices by an average of 14 percent.

CHETRY: When my hubby and I first moved to the city, we could get a Mets ticket for seven bucks. I mean, way, way, way up but people weren't into them.

ROBERTS: You might be able to get it for $5.50.

CHETRY: Well, a warning to get ready for a real hassle this holiday season. If you want a refund, "Smart Money" magazine says that stores are cracking down on returns this year because they're getting so many more in a bad economy. But they also say it's also to cut down on fraud. They may try to get your name in a database. And the article also says that Victoria's Secret once asked to scan a woman's driver's license when she tried to bring back five pairs of underwear.

ROBERTS: Really? That's interesting.

Well, here's a different way to go fishing. It's also the video of the day.

A dog named "Honey" seized the catch of the day after heavy rains overflood a river in Washington State. Go get it, girl. Go get it. Go get it. It took a couple of tries, but "Honey" eventually came up with a good-size salmon, brought it home to the owner for dinner.

Oh, look at that. Good girl, "Honey."

CHETRY: That's a new take on fishing. Congratulations. That's a good dog.

ROBERTS: That's a good dog. What do you think the salmon is thinking about the whole day?

CHETRY: Yes, not so good for the salmon. Great for the salmon.

ROBERTS: What am I doing here?

CHETRY: Well, a new team -- you know, also, I just thought of something. I don't think you can return underwear anyway. You know, you can't return bathing suits.

ROBERTS: Well, no, apparently you can if you let them scan your driver's license.

CHETRY: OK. It's not the most --

Well, a new team is about to take charge in Washington. What does it mean for your money, for your investments, for your job? Will it really make a difference? Our Christine Romans breaks it all down for us coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes after the hour now. And checking the "Political Ticker" this Thursday morning.

Palin will run. That's what Mayor Rudy Giuliani thinks, the former presidential candidate himself. He told our Wolf Blitzer that she sure sounds like someone who's running but that Palin may be up against more than a dozen other GOP contenders.

CHETRY: Well, there are still two big Senate races up in the air this morning. In Alaska, it looks like incumbent Lisa Murkowski's write-in campaign may have worked. Write-ins lead the race with 41 percent, but they still have to count them all. Joe Miller is behind by about 13,000 votes and is fighting.

In Washington State, mail-in ballots are holding things up. Right now, incumbent Democrat Patty Murray is hanging on to a slim two-point lead over Republican Dino Rossi.

ROBERTS: Well, the election of 2010 is barely over but, well, we got a moment here. Let's talk a little 2012. After the Democrats took a shellacking on Tuesday, new polls are out showing how the president would do against four of the most likely GOP nominees, including Sarah Palin. Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House for us this morning. And some pretty interesting statistics that you got for us this morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know, the president likes to say that he's not focused on 2012. But yesterday at a conference call, he actually admitted, he said, look, you know, there are times when things are down, we're down. And we're going to get back up. The next two years, as well as the next six years. So they are thinking about this.

This is the latest CNN poll here. Here's how it stacks up. The president runs he would lose against Mitt Romney, as well as Mike Huckabee.

Now, what would be the winning scenario for Barack Obama. That is if he went against Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. What does this say?

We're not exactly sure what it says yet, John. But we do know that the president yesterday, it was all about acknowledging the obvious, that is the shellacking that occurred. Now, it is about regrouping. He's meeting with his cabinet later this morning, and he's going to work on short-term goals. We're talking about in the lame duck session, repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Perhaps compromising with Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts, as well as some other unemployment benefits. And then obviously, the hard, hard work. That is, negotiating and working with Republicans come January. And it's all about jobs in the economy. That is the message that the president got yesterday.

CHETRY: It was also interesting to hear him talk about health care because some Republicans have run on the whole repeal and revise. Or, you know, repeal in general health care. He said that he was curious to see if we wanted to go back over all of that ground and spend so much time again after the big health care fight.

MALVEAUX: The president has refused to accept that this is a repudiation or rejection of his economic policies, of his policies in general. He says, look, you know, the health care plan is going to remain in place. It is not possible that the Republicans are going to be able to repeal it. Perhaps they'll cut off and work on the edges but he strongly believes that he has done the right thing when it comes to giving people, allowing all people to have health care insurance. Some of the major things, the mandates that have occurred, we know that that's going to be a very tough fight with Republicans. But the fundamental belief from the president is that he believes his policies are working, but they need to work better and he needs to have more time.

ROBERTS: We'll see just how much of a battle it's going to be in the next two year. Suzanne Malveaux at the White House this morning. Suzanne, thanks. Good to see you back home.

MALVEAUX: Thanks.

CHETRY: Twenty-eight minutes past the hour right now. A look at our top stories.

A major scare for passengers on board the world's largest passenger plane. A mid-air engine failure forcing a Qantas Airbus A380 to make an emergency landing in Singapore. Passengers say it sounded like an explosion just minutes after takeoff. Qantas has now grounded its entire fleet of the double-decker super jumbos as a precaution.

ROBERTS: It's all clear this morning at New York's JFK airport. A DHL cargo facility was briefly evacuated late yesterday afternoon because of a suspicious package. Police say the package contained a cell phone and was sent from an address in Yemen. The same place where two explosive devices were shipped last week.

CHETRY: And tropical storm Tomas gaining strength, puts its eye on Haiti. Forecasters now expect Tomas to make landfall in Haiti late night or early tomorrow morning. And it could be a hurricane when it gets there. Haitians already trying to recover from the devastating earthquake. Many of them living in tent cities and as we know, just hit as well, by a cholera outbreak.

ROBERTS: Well, all of the exit polls showed it quite clearly. Our struggling economy played a significant role in delivering the Republicans a victory on Tuesday night. So how will the new Congress impact your taxes, your job, your investments?

CHETRY: Our Christine Romans joins us now with some answers this morning. Hey, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. The things that you can feel right away, how will a Republican Congress, how will a Republican House matter to you and your money? So let's go to the wall and take a look at these things and break them down one at a time.

Taxes. Taxes, a really big issue on the campaign trail. The Bush tax cuts expire on December 31st. The White House has said that it would like to keep the tax cuts for the middle class, everybody making under $250 a year. The Republicans have said they want these tax cuts kept for everyone. This is not the time to be raising taxes in a weak economy.

Look for some compromise here. And also look for a hiccup. Because if this current Congress doesn't deal with the issue of the Bush tax cuts immediately before it adjourns November 15th, you could see your tax bill go up in January. Until this is handled by the new Congress. So watch for that. Let's take a look at your job here. The Republicans have said they like to see less federal money.

They would like to see smaller government and less federal spending. That could very well mean that jobs like teachers, jobs like local and municipal workers could see, as the stimulus expires, no new federal money coming in there to replace it. You could see more job cuts in that area. So that could be a fallout from there. Also, the jobless benefits extension. Will the Republicans be so quick to keep extending jobless benefits?

Jobless benefits extension again needs to be addressed by this Congress first, before we stop talking about the next Congress. And in fact, you guys, in Indiana, they're putting armed guards in the jobless benefits offices because it's such a stressful situation with potentially so many people losing their jobless benefits that they're relying on. So watch that space as well for potentially jobless extensions not continuing all the way through next year. Again and again like we've seen now.

Investments, the Dow is historically up in the third year of a presidency. And many people on Wall Street have been saying that one of the reasons why the stock market has been up, and that affects your investments, your retirement, your 401(k), it's been up because of anticipation of a Republican victory here. Watch to see if stocks continue to keep rising. It's what some analysts are saying maybe five percent, six percent, seven percent again next year.

But again, who knows. Watch for investments. Historically, the Dow is up on the third year of a presidency and did you know that since this president took office, the S&P is up more than 40 percent? Partly on anticipation of a Republican victory here this weekend. But stocks have already been up very, very high. Even as we're very worried about jobs which affects people more directly and much worse, the stocks have been up. Just to note.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: It's good to have the stock market up. It would also be a good thing to create some jobs in this country.

ROMANS: That's right. And it might actually be at the Fed. And the Federal Reserve is doing this week and how well they do it, that affects you more quickly on the job front and more dramatically on the job front than anything this Congress will do or will not do.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: What is the Fed doing?

ROMANS: The Fed is going to inject $600 billion into the economy. Print money to inject its own stimulus. It doesn't have to be passed by Congress. There's no oversight there. The Fed is embarking on a really big historic stimulus here right now. How well they do with that could be the thing that determines job growth and conditions for business first. We'll have more on that in the next hour.

CHETRY: Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

CHETRY: Well, he kept a seat in the House but he is not going to need it for a little while. Check out Congressman Ed Perlmutter. He had the celebration of the night. Turning a couple of cartwheels. Here we go. One. Nice form. Two. I give it a 10. The judges gave him a five on the landing. They were all Republicans.

ROBERTS: The man in line for the next Speaker of the House has already given "Saturday Night Live" a little bit of ammunition. He tried on election night. He's also got that famous tan. That got "Politico" ticking who will play John Boehner on "SNL." Their money is on Jason Sudeikis. Dan Akroyd played Congressman Boehner a couple of years ago.

And now the Republicans rule the House where does the president and America go from here? Jonathan Martin, the senior political writer at "Politico," coming up next.

You're watching the most news in the morning. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: 36 minutes after the hour now. The dust has settled from election night. There's quite a mess left behind for the Democratic Party. President Obama admitting now that his policies haven't worked fast enough to fix the economy. And that he needs to find some common ground with Republicans after Democrats got demolished on Tuesday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is something that I think every president needs to go through. Because the responsibilities of this office are so enormous. And so many people are depending on what we do.

Now, I'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like I did last night. You know. I'm sure they're easier ways to learn these lessons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: In 2008 to Tuesday night, take a look at how the sea of blue turned into - watch this, a river of red. So where do we go from here as a nation? Let's ask Jonathan Martin. He's the senior political writer at "Politico." He joins us live from Washington.

Jonathan, great to see you. Thanks for joining us.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "POLITICO," SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER: Hey, John. Thanks for having me.

ROBERTS: You write on "Politico" this morning, let's put it up on the screen, for folks to see. "The new GOP majority is expected to hobble the president's legislative agenda and bleed his administration with subpoenas and investigations." You obviously expect this to be nasty couple of years?

MARTIN: I think it could be. We don't know yet definitively, John. But if you look at the conservative energy that was behind Republican wins on Tuesday. That was not a vote for reconciliation, that was not a vote for compromise. That was a vote for rolling back this president and the Democratic Congress' agenda.

And that's not going to be easy, of course, because Democrats still have the Senate. But given that the House does have a GOP majority, that means they have subpoena power, and they can at least put up road blocks before this administration. So there's going to be a fascinating debate within the Republican Party here in the months to come between some of these Tea Party folks that really want to be more combative and aggressive. And others in the party that don't want to be seen as too extreme or you know, making the sort of Washington gridlock even worse in the eyes of voters.

ROBERTS: On the topic of the Tea Party, Senator Jim DeMint warned Tea Party members (INAUDIBLE) to avoid being co-opted by the Republican establishment. John Boehner, he's an establishment guy. Is he the one to unite Republicans under a single banner?

MARTIN: Well, I think he will certainly try in the House and of course, in the Senate, you have Mitch McConnell. John, one of the under reported stories of Tuesday is that yes, there were Tea Party candidates that won election in the House, and certainly in the Senate, Rand Paul from Kentucky comes to mind. But there are a lot of new senators elected on Tuesday who are Republicans who are actually much more in the McConnell mold. Much more establishment type figures, Rob Portland from Ohio. Mark Kirk from Illinois. These are going to be sort of center right GOP folks coming into the Senate.

So it's not all sort of Tea Party energy coming in, although that element is there, certainly. But I think in the Senate, you're going to see perhaps more room for compromise now going forward than perhaps in the House.

ROBERTS: With the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that his chief goal is going to be to ensure that President Obama is just a one-term presidency. How do you think that that's going to play out over the next couple of years? Are we going to see, Jonathan, a permanent campaign or will Republicans try to do that through legislative accomplishments that they can hold up in a compare and contrast for voters as we get into that campaign full time?

MARTIN: Well, I think you're going to see some caution on at least the Republican leadership, in the sense of not wanting to be seen as total obstruction in the eyes of voters. Voters are fed up with Washington. They've proven that three cycles, John, in a row now.

So if Republicans are seen as, you know, making the sort of gridlock here in the capital worse, that's going to hurt them eventually in 2012. If nothing else but the lesson from the past three election cycles is this. Voters are impatient. They have short attention spans and they want solutions. And they're not tied traditionally like they were to the parties. So if you're not getting it done, they're going to toss you out.

So that's a warning to Republicans like McConnell, they have something of a chance now. But they have to be careful when it comes to totally opposing this president, John, because that could hurt them politically in the eyes of voters.

ROBERTS: Now, I'm sure that David Axelrod is probably sitting down this morning, and maybe he's already done it, thinking OK, 2012, how can we get to 270 electoral votes.

MARTIN: Yes.

ROBERTS: How is this going to play out two years from now? When you look at the president, he won Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio. All of those states in one way nor other went Republican on Tuesday night.

MARTIN: That's a great point, John. In our eyes the election on Tuesday was a repudiation of the Obama map in 2008. He won in places like Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina that haven't gone Democrat in years. Those states all saw big GOP gains on Tuesday. And you mentioned (INAUDIBLE) states, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, all in some way or another gave the GOP a huge gain.

I think, John, we're going to see in 2012, a return to that 2004 map that your viewers are very familiar with, that red versus blue. Where the coasts are blue, much of the interior is red. And the two candidates fight over very limited terrain, usually Florida and Ohio. I think we're going to see a return to that sort of trench warfare style politics. President Obama expanded the map in '08, but, it's going to show it's going to be tough for him to do that once again in 2012.

ROBERTS: And Jonathan, one of the other things we've been talking about this morning is what does Nancy Pelosi do? Does she try to go for the minority leadership? Do you think she even wants it? Will she get out? What do you think?

MARTIN: I think she's keeping her options open. My colleague Jonathan Allen has reported this morning that she sent a letter to all of her Democratic colleagues in the House. Sort of keeping it open. So she has not revealed her cards when it does come to that. But look, if she was going to resign not just from her speakership, her leadership post, or from the house, that may have happened already, John. Sort of looking at how these things are traditionally done in Washington. That typically would have happened the day after.

I think now she's sort of taking the temperature of her membership. But the fact that we're now talking on Thursday morning, we haven't heard yet, that indicates to me there's still the possibility, John, that she tries to remain in leadership.

ROBERTS: All right. We'll see if she does that. Jonathan Martin from "Politico." Always good to catch up with you. Thanks so much.

MARTIN: Thanks. Good to see you.

CHETRY: Coming up, it's a major hit for the drug cartel. An elaborate underground tunnel connecting drug warehouses in Mexico to the U.S. found by the fed. The fed saying that's not all they found.

Also, a rainy start on Thursday on some of the east coast. Rob's going to have our morning travel forecast for us right after the break.

It's 43 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, you heard that you are what you eat. But how about you are what you watch? Research group analyzed the personalities of television viewers. Here's what they came up with. If you watch a show like "Madmen," for example, then you're probably a liberal, an intellectually curious type, and more of a dreamer than a realist.

CHETRY: People who like "Dancing With the Stars," which I like a lot, tend to play it safe. And if you watch "Family Guy," you're more likely to take risks and break the rules. Those are the only three categories.

ROBERTS: Do you play it safe?

CHETRY: I like "Family Guy," too. So, how could I be play it safe and take risks? I don't know if this is quite scientific.

ROBERTS: Well, it all depends, I guess, on what time of day it is. And maybe whether or not you've had a libation or two.

CHETRY: My problem is that I just get stuck on Nick Junior because of the kids. What if you watch a lot of "Dora the Explorer?"

ROBERTS: We're going to have to get some serious analysis going on.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Still to come, this morning, a Qantas airlines jumbo jet -- one of those super jumbos -- the double deckers -- forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore. An engine exploded, tore apart in midair, piece of it falling to the ground below. Details coming up at the top of the hour.

CHETRY: Five shots fired at Military facilities over the past two weeks. We're live in Washington, with the latest on the search for a suspect and motive.

ROBERTS: And a uniquely American brand, Harley Davidson now being built in India, of all places. A deal that some people call Mangos for Motorcycles. We're live in New Delhi, with the details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour. Time for an AM House Call, stories about your health, this morning. We talk about the devastating hits that is pro-football players take. It's been getting a lot of extra attention lately. The league vowing to crack down on these violent helmet to helmet collisions.

ROBERTS: Now the American Academy of Neurology is weighing in with new guidelines for treating concussions in athletes. Our chief medal correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from Atlanta.

Sanjay, this is a story that we think is very important. We love the coverage on it. There's just been a lot more attention focused on all of this. Why is it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I think a couple of things. And we've been reporting on this for some time, John.

I think, first of all, there are a lot of concussions out there and a lot of concussions are happening in school-aged children. Estimates anywhere from three of four million a year. The numbers have certainly increased. The science has changed, as well, in terms of what we knew even a few years ago versus now.

So these guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology are a pretty big deal and there's a long set of guidelines but let me give you a couple of highlights specifically.

This idea of, for example, that in the past back in 1997, the last time the guidelines came out, they said if someone had a problem with, you know, nausea, vomiting, headache, feeling out of it, as long as the symptoms went away in 15 minutes, it was OK. That player could go back to the field. Now they're saying if someone has any sort of concussive symptoms at all, they have to stay out of the game.

They also say that even at amateur sporting events they have to have a clinical trainer standing by. Even during practice. Obviously, in the past, that was not necessary, at least not part of the guidelines even, you know, 10 years ago or so. So that part of it changed, I think. But I think the biggest thing is really this awareness that if someone does have this idea they sort of feel out of it, they're nauseated or anything, those symptoms simply cannot be blown off.

This is my world as a neurosurgeon. But one thing that really got my attention and part of this investigation over the last few months is a story of a boy named Max Conradt. He's a high school football player. He got a concussion and then after that, he got a second concussion. And what he teaches us -- and we're have that story for on AMERICAN MORNING in a you in a couple of week. But, what he teaches us is while one concussion is bad, a second is exponentially worse. I think if you have to remember one thing, that's what you need to remember. One concussion, bad. Second concussion, exponential worse -- John, Kiran.

CHETRY: Now that they know more, Sanjay, are guidelines like taking them out of the game after a hit being followed in schools?

GUPTA: Well, it's interesting, Kiran. I was a little surprised when we started looking into this. There are no consistent guidelines or certainly laws in the country right now at the amateur level. And that's part of the issue here.

There's about eight or nine states, including Washington, Oregon, that have specific guidelines regarding having a certified trainer there when the return to play can occur. But for right now it's kind of ad ho. And if you go around and talk to a lot of even high school football coaches, a lot of them simply don't know how to diagnose a concussion. They're not sure exactly when it's occurring.

ROBERTS: We're learning more about this and the importance of making sure these kids don't come back in for more brain injuries.

Sanjay Gupta, this morning. Sanjay, doc, thanks so much.

About three minutes now to the top of the hour and your top stories coming your way in about 90 seconds time. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)