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American Morning
Battleground: New Hampshire; New Anthony Weiner Photos; Cyberattack At International Monetary Fund; Harvest Forecast Points to Higher Food Prices; Lundberg Survey: Gas Prices Dropping; Avoiding the Summer "Brain Drain"
Aired June 13, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It's go time.
I'm Christine Romans.
We're live in New Hampshire. The GOP ready to debate. New polls showing a front-runner has emerged. Newcomers already trying to tear him down.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
Democrats trying to control the damage from Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal. There are new calls for the congressman to resign as photos emerged, taken by the congressman himself, in the House gym on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: And good morning to you. It's Monday, June 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
Ali Velshi is off today.
But Christine Romans is live in Manchester, New Hampshire -- up bright and early ahead of the debate tonight.
Hey, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Kiran.
You're right. We're live this morning from St. Anselm College of New Hampshire, for the first debate in the first primary state. One top New Hampshire Republican told us that it's introduction day for voters.
And this is not decision day. Brand new polls back that up. One poll shows Mitt Romney going into tonight with the early lead.
Tonight, you're going to hear from Mitt Romney, along with former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich; former Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty; Congressman Ron Paul; Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota; former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum; and Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza. I mean, he did really well in South Carolina in a debate last week, but, you know -- or last month rather, but the underdogs already on the offense here.
It's -- Jessica Yellin is with us right now.
Jessica, Tim Pawlenty, he's sharpening his attack on Mitt Romney over health care. This is the target that is on Mitt Romney, the frontrunner's back.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, we have to point out, Tim Pawlenty is sort of considered the establishment favorite if Mitt Romney should stumble. And Pawlenty, depending what poll you look at, he is in the low to mid-single digits.
This requires some careful positioning for him. He doesn't want to be seen as going too aggressively against a solid Republican, but he has to point out what all the other Republicans think is Mitt Romney's greatest weakness, that the health care plan he proposed is just so much like the one that's so unpopular that Democrats passed and listen to what he said about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM PAWLENTY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I had responded to a question on the show this morning about the similarities between the president's plan and Massachusetts' plan. But just commented that it's obvious, and President Obama said in his own words that he patterned Obamacare after the health care plan in Massachusetts and merged those two things together to form Obamacare or, as I call it, Obamneycare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: Well, we're going to hear that a lot more now, Obamneycare. And I'll give you just briefly why it matters. A lot of Republicans are saying this speaks to what a big government health care plan, right? That this is exactly what so many Republicans don't like.
And so, if you have a front-runner who has something so similar to President Obama, that could make him too weak in a general election. That could help Romney lose a general election, let President Obama win. So, better to bring it out now.
ROMANS: But Romney's defense, of course, is that, look, this is -- I was a governor of a state and states should have a right to decide these sorts of things, not the federal government.
YELLIN: Absolutely. And he will have a case to make and he will make it. I bet we will hear him make it tonight. This is simply what his opponents will be trying to point out.
ROMANS: Of course.
Newt Gingrich and I said that Pawlenty -- so, if you can knock -- if they can knock Mitt Romney back a little bit, Pawlenty is the establishment front-runner then or the big challenger to this.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: But you look at Newt Gingrich, he's somebody with 40 years of history in public office, he's on his heels here at this point.
YELLIN: Yes, he has had some uh-oh, oopsies lately. The most recent is that his entire staff has effectively defected and said, dude, you're going your own way. We're not with you.
ROMANS: I've never -- I mean, that is so early in the game. I can't believe it -- I mean, it was really out of the blue.
YELLIN: John McCain had a similar experience at one point. It was much later in the game. It's happened to other candidates before.
The interesting thing will be to see how and if he can recover from it. He's joked about it. He spoke here in New Hampshire last night. Let's listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I had various people commented in recent weeks, as someone who has been in public life for nearly 40 years I know full well the rigors of campaigning for public office. In fact, I've had some recent reminders.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: So, for Gingrich, the challenge tonight would be to remind Americans why he's been popular for so many years. He's always been about he's been about him. He's got charisma, he's got energy, he's got ideas.
And so, to show them, this is why you liked me before and then demonstrate that there's a way that he can prove that he can be organized, implement ideas and get a staff that will stick with him.
ROMANS: Herman Cain is trying to continue that big momentum that he got in South Carolina. And Michele Bachmann -- an introduction to voters from Michele Bachmann. She's trying -- she has to show discipline -- discipline in her message and discipline in her facts.
YELLIN: And also going off script, being able to just answer questions freely out of the base of knowledge.
For Herman Cain, it's really -- remind -- he's sort of the new coming star, the rising star that is sort of catching fire. And I think he'll entertain and interest a lot of people. There'll be a lot of energy coming from those two corners of debate.
ROMANS: All right. Everyone is looking to break out. Everyone looking to break out and it remains to be seen who will, if any one.
All right. Thanks so much, Jessica Yellin.
We want to know what issues are important to you. It's our question of the day. You can e-mail us, you can give us a tweet or you can tell us on Facebook. We're going to read some of those later on the program.
Also, coming up at 8:30 Eastern, we're going to go behind the scenes of the debate with Tevi Troy, a veteran of President Bush's 2004 debate prep team. Ever wonder what they're writing when they're jotting all that stuff down at the podium? We're going to ask.
Back now to Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. Weren't they talking about he had some 40 books of prep that he was going through?
ROMANS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: There are 40,000 potential questions and only 40 potential answers. It's all about steering whatever the question is into your area of expertise and getting your message across. And that's going to be John King's job, to try to get them to answer the question.
CHETRY: Get them off script, get them off the talking points.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Christine.
Police in Norfolk, Virginia, now investigating a deadly shooting of Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings' nephew. Twenty- year-old Chris Cummings shown here on his Facebook page was a student at Old Dominion University. He was found dead in his off-campus apartment Friday morning. His roommate is also critically wounded. No word yet on a possible motive for that shooting.
When Congress returns to work in just a few hours, Democrat Anthony Weiner will not be in the House. He has taken a leave of absence after his sexting scandal.
A new batch of photos surfaced over the weekend on the Web site TMZ, showing Weiner in the House members' gym and leaving little to the imagination in some of the pictures. It's increased the pressure on Weiner to resign.
Also, a "New York Daily News" report suggested that Weiner may now be considering that as a possibility.
CNN's Kate Bolduan is following development this morning. She's live in Washington.
And that report is the first we've heard that he has remained firm about wanting to stay in office.
BOLDUAN: He has up until this point. But he did leave kind of -- the statement was saying he was going to the treatment center kind of open-ended, which I think what has a lot of people wondering.
One thing is clear, Kiran, that House Democrats did not want to return from recess today to begin a third week of having to deal with this scandal rather than being able to talk about their agenda. I think that's why at least in part over the weekend, we saw a pretty significant shift from House Democratic leaders or Democratic leaders in general who had resisted coming out to explicitly call for Congressman Weiner to step down, coming out to do just that.
Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think Anthony Weiner needs to resign so he can focus on his family and focus on his own well-being.
REP. STENY HOYER (D), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: It seems to me extraordinarily difficult that he can proceed to represent his constituents in an effective way, giving the circumstances of this bizarre behavior.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BOLDUAN: That, you just heard from Steny Hoyer. He's the number two Democrat in the House. The number one Democrat in the House, Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, she also came out with a statement this weekend calling on Anthony Weiner to step down -- a very significant statement coming from the Democratic leader in the House.
But one thing does still remain unclear, Kiran, what Anthony Weiner will do? What does his future hold? And what will he decide?
We know that he's taking a leave of absence for an undetermined amount of time at an undisclosed treatment center. But we do know from a Democratic source telling CNN that the congressman doesn't want to make any decision without talking to his wife first when she would return, which we hear is Thursday. She has been away on an overseas trip with Secretary Hillary Clinton, who's a long-time aide for.
So, he wants to at least he wants to at least wait to consult with his wife before he makes any decision his future. So, we'll be waiting today to see how things develop there, as well as to see how his colleagues react as they come back to work -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Kate Bolduan for us this morning -- thanks so much.
Our first close-up look at Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head back in January. Her office posting two photographs on Giffords' Facebook page. She looks remarkably good. Her hair is shorter. She's all smiles in both of the pictures.
A spokesman says Giffords expects to leave a Houston rehab facility by the end of the month and begin her outpatient treatment.
Well, the makers of "South Park" clean up big at the Tony Awards. We're going to have a little recap for you of how it went down last night.
Plus, the Dallas Mavericks -- they are the new NBA champs, winning the title for the very first time in franchise history.
Arizona still poses serious health hazard, the wildfire there at least. People are being allowed to return home but told to proceed with caution. We're going to check in with Rob Marciano.
It's 10 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirteen minutes past the hour.
Fans of the Dallas Mavericks have reason to celebrate this morning. The Mavs are now the NBA champions, beating the Miami Heat 105-95 last night to win the NBA title in six games. It is the first win in franchise history. Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki also named MVP finals. Or -- yes, finals, MVP finals.
OK, the guys who created "South Park," Trey Parker and Matt Stone are now the toast of Broadway. Their musical satire, "The Book of Mormon," is the big winner at Tony Awards last night. It was nominated for 14 Tonys and took home nine, including the one for best musical.
Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center.
If I had to guess whether you're up watching the NBA finals games or the Tonys, I'm going to go with the basketball game.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. There's couple of different demos here. Although they addressed that, I did watch the opening number of the Tony Awards.
CHETRY: With Neil Patrick Harris. Everyone was raving about it.
MARCIANO: Phenomenally talented. And it was pretty funny. But after that, yes, it was all about the game and it was a good game that I turned off in the fourth quarter so that I can be rested to work with you, Kiran.
CHETRY: Hey, I didn't watch it at all, because I needed to be rested as well.
MARCIANO: Yes. You know, when you're the driving the ship solo up there, we need you alert and ready to go. Thank you for doing that.
Hey, listen. It's cooler, and that makes everyone a little more alert across the Northeast after the very hot conditions last week, unseasonably cool now. We got some storms that will rumble across the midsection of the country. And fire threat still exists across New Mexico, and Arizona and to parts of Texas as well.
We also have the threat for seeing some severe thunderstorms pop up today. We're starting to see that across central Missouri, you see those cells there in that watch box which is in effect until 1:00 this afternoon local time. And they'll be rumbling towards the south and east and eventually get into St. Louis area here in the next couple of hours. The main threat with these are: this hail and some winds that could gust over 60 miles an hour. Winds will be gusty to 30 miles an hour or so across the fire danger area there and, of course, humidity levels will be rather low.
Look at the temperatures across the South, continuing to sizzle. In Dallas, 101. It will be 93 degrees in Atlanta, 96 in New Orleans. A lot of these cities have not seen temperatures below 90 for over two weeks.
But places like Chicago and, yes, New York City, seeing temperatures at or maybe slightly below average. So, refreshing, cool clouds continue to hang around for you up there.
Kiran, see you guys in about half an hour.
CHETRY: All right, Rob, see you then.
Crews were trying to install a large fiberglass pool in the backyard of a home. This is near St. Paul, Minnesota, when the crane that was carrying that fiberglass pool crashed into the house. The garage roof was destroyed. The top of the chimney was sliced off. The crane operator is blaming a computer error. I mean, look at the actual -- truck is halfway in the air. No one was hurt, and they say that repairs are underway. Yikes.
Well, we are following the latest details in the Casey Anthony trial. They had court over the weekend on Saturday. And this Saturday, a forensic expert talked more about what may have been going on when it comes to the trunk of Casey Anthony's car. We also had an entomologist, a bug expert, testifying how damaging is this to the defense. Sunny Hostin joins us in just a moment. It's 16 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's about 20 minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning. Cyber attack at the IMF. Another cyber attack this time at the International Monetary Fund. The "New York Times" reporting the attack happened several months before IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested over sexual assault charges. The IMF says it is investigating the incident but would not disclose further details.
And you could be seeing higher food prices at the supermarket this fall. All the flooding, tornados, and droughts across the country made a hard planting season for America's farmers, this according to the Department of Agriculture. That could mean you'll be paying more at the market.
But, gas prices are down. They've dropped nearly 17 cents on average in the past three weeks. And the latest national survey of prices at the pump says the average cost of gas will continue to fall. The current national average for a gallon of regular unleaded just dropped to $3.70, according to AAA.
Stock futures are up slightly in premarket trading this morning. The Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 futures are all set to open higher ahead of the opening bell after six brutal weeks of losses now.
And a new record was set in the annual charity auction for lunch with billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, a whopping $2.6 million. You can hear the bells of St. Anselm College behind me this morning.
And 37 million, that's how much the movie "Super 8" raked in to the box office this weekend. The J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg dropped "X-Men: First Class" to number two and the "Hangover" sequel to third place.
Coming up after the break, here from New Hampshire, how candidates get their game faces on. A veteran of President Bush's debate press team takes up behind the curtain in New Hampshire. Listen to the bells. AMERICAN MORNING back right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-four minutes past the hour right now. It is the start of week four in the Casey Anthony murder trial. Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case in the next few days. The young Florida mother is charged with killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, and burying her remains in the woods.
Now, on the stand Saturday, an expert on bugs, an entomologist, Neal Haskell, testified about the insects and larvae that he found in the defendant's trunk. This is the trunk where prosecutors are claiming Casey stored the remains of her two-year-old daughter before burying her. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF ASHTON, PROSECUTOR: Let me put it to you in a hypothetical. That the body of a young child was stored in the trunk of that car for a period of time and then removed and deposited in another location. Does that fit with the entomological evidence you found?
DR. NEAL HASKELL, FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGIST: Absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Just how damaging with Dr. Haskell's testimony to the defense and what can we expect next from the prosecutors as this case wraps up? Sonny Hostin joins us now. She's a legal contributor for our sister network, truTV's "In Session" and a former federal prosecutor. Welcome, Sunny. Good to see you as always.
SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR, "IN SESSION": Good to see you.
CHETRY: So, bottom line, they're just trying to establish the prosecution that the body of the two-year-old, Caylee, was, at some point, in the trunk, and that's what this entomologist was testifying for when he said absolutely?
HOSTIN: That's right. And I mean, I think it's sort of preemptive in the sense because the defense theory is that she wasn't in the trunk. If that Roy Kronk is a meter reader, basically, moved the body into the woods, kept the body and then moved the body into the woods. And so, they're trying -- the defense is trying very, very hard to distance Casey Anthony from that trunk and from little Caylee's body, because as we know, the defense said this was an accidental drowning.
This wasn't murder by any means. And so, I think their bug expert did a pretty good job of that because do bugs lie, you know?
CHETRY: Right.
HOSTIN: They're not testifying, but the evidence was there that the type of insects that can be found when there is a fresh body, where there is a decomposing body, those insects were in the trunk. And so, I think that was really pretty important evidence for this prosecution. Still, it's a circumstantial case. And Kiran, you know, we've been talking about this case.
CHETRY: Right. This is a question --
HOSTIN: It's tough.
CHETRY: There are a couple of questions I have for the defense. It seems to me, at least, it would be a gamble to try to claim that the body of the two-year-old was never in the trunk. I mean, make your case however you will and bring in other family members that you're trying to blame.
HOSTIN: Right.
CHETRY: They're trying to blame the dad in this case for trying to cover up the accidental drowning, but so far, you've had two scientists, one testify that a strand of hair consistent with Caylee's and consistent with decomposition was found in the trunk.
HOSTIN: One hair.
CHETRY: And secondly, you have now the claim that at least some bugs that are seen or found around decomposing bodies also found in the trunk.
HOSTIN: That's right.
CHETRY: How does the defense begin to count that? HOSTIN: Well, you know, we don't know yet, because the defense's case in chief hasn't started. It's going to start probably next week, I think, but in opening statements, again, they sort of laid out their theory but with a lot of holes. They didn't address the trunk really. They didn't address whether or not George Anthony placed the body in the trunk. Whether or not -- when Roy Kronk got this body. There are a lot of holes in the defense's case.
If the defense does not shore up those holes in its case in chief, it's going to be very problematic for the jury, because as you and I have been discussing, jurors want to know timeline. They want to know what happened. And I don't think that the prosecution has answered all of those questions yet. Prosecution has about a week left to go. They're going to call, I think, the tattoo artist, which goes to motive.
That's sort of good life, that beautiful life tattoo. They're going to call some trace evidence experts, but then, I think that's pretty much it. So, which the defense now that's going to fill in a lot of those holes?
CHETRY: Were they also allowed to introduce evidence? I read some of the journal entries of Casey Anthony where she writes things like the end will justify the means, hopefully. Was that already admitted?
HOSTIN: No. And that may be coming in. That may be coming in. I think again they really have to go to motive, and I always try to tell people, prosecutors don't have to prove motive. It's not an element of the crime, but the jury needs to know why. They always have that why question. And I just don't think they've answered it primarily because this crime cuts across and against the nature of a mother, right?
And so, a lot of jurors have that question. Usually, when you have a mom killing a baby, Kiran, you have a history of child abuse. Child services has been called in many, many times or you have mental illness. And those elements aren't here yet. So, I wonder about the motive evidence that really that explanation hasn't come in, and maybe we're going to hear that this week.
CHETRY: We talked about the intense interest with this case. It's also very strange and somewhat disconcerting to see what's going on outside of the courtroom with people knocking each other over. These fights that are taking place as people are clamoring to get a seat and to see this. I mean, these people running in as if they're going to see a movie.
HOSTIN: It's like the Willy Wonka golden ticket.
CHETRY: They're getting, you know, some form of entertainment. It's kind of a little disturbing to see that. What's going on here?
HOSTIN: It is. You know, I've never seen anything like this before. And I've covered so many trials and tried them myself. I think it has to do with sort of social media. I think it has to do with the accessibility that we have now and just that premise, a mother killing a baby. It cuts across everything that we believe about mothers.
And I think that is why it's become just so fascinating to the public. I liken it to people that watch car crashes on the side of the road. They don't want to look, but then, they do want to look. And part of it is that how could a mother really do this? And I think that's part of the fascination, but it's so voyeuristic.
CHETRY: It is.
HOSTIN: I mean, it's like there are 50 public seats and people are fighting over 50 seats. It's like -- They're like golden tickets now.
CHETRY: Unbelievable. All right. Sunny, great to have your take as always. Thanks for being with us.
HOSTIN: Thanks.
CHETRY: Top stories now, Christchurch in New Zealand rocked again by a series of earthquakes. There are reports of injuries and damage. This is the same area where an earthquake killed more than 180 people back in February.
Police in Norfolk, Virginia, are investigating the fatal shooting of Maryland Congressman's Elijah Cummings' nephew. Chris Cummings was a student at Old Dominion University, found dead in his off-campus apartment Friday morning, his roommate also critically wounded. There is no word on the possible motive for the shooting.
The stage is set. The first debate of the Republican national race will begin at 7:00 pm. Seven Republican hopefuls will be there, including Mitt Romney, who leads the polls right now, maybe wearing the front-runner's bull's eye. Christine, it's most likely that the president, president Obama and his policies will sort of be the target here as these seven candidates try to make a name for themselves.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. They have to stay on their own message, but they also have to be ready to show some personality and go off script if need be, Kiran, the candidates making their final preparations for the debate.
Voters can make snap judgments on ear even the tiniest things on stage and some things end up on "Saturday night live," like Governor Palin winking at the camera, back in 2008. Back in 1992, George h.W. Bush checked his watch during a question about the economy. America was in a recession back then, too. And many voters took that as a sign that he was detached from their situation.
And then there are the lines that last forever, like the zinger that left President Reagan's opponent speechless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD REAGAN, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: To this day, that must be one of the best debate lines ever. Joining us with a unique look behind the curtain is Tevi Troy, a veteran of the 2004 debate prep team for President Bush. Welcome to the program.
Now, in getting ready for primary season there's a difference than in getting ready for the general election, tell me a little bit about what these candidates are doing right now to prepare to break out from their pack of fellow Republicans.
TEVI TROY, BUSH 2004 DEBATE PREP TEAM: You're right, Christine. Thanks for having me on. You want to go on offense and distinguish yourself, break out from the pack. In the presidential debate, as we were talking about a minute ago, you're playing defense. You don't want to make a mistake at that level.
Right now they are trying on zingers and trying to relax. Tim Pawlenty just went bowling instead of doing a prep session. They're trying to make sure they come across as easy going, happy and positive. At the same time they want to have zingers directed at President Obama, as was suggested.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was here and well prepped. So when you were with President Bush in 2004, 40-page briefing books, this 40,000 potential questions. There's only 40 potential answers. The deal here is they need to try to steer whatever John King throws at them back toward what they want to say?
TROY: That's right. It was more than a 40-page book. It was a 40-section book that we tried to get down to one page each.
The key was, as I said at the beginning, the job of my campaign 40 penciled questions. As I was told by somebody before, there's only 40 answers, which means the candidate has 40 rifts, and he wants to direct every possible question to those rifts that he has internalized. You don't want a candidate memorizing new stuff for a debate but his internal monologue that the candidate is comfortable with. You can't have him come up with stuff that he's not used before, untested stuff.
On the other hand, if you do that too much, there's a danger that people can anticipate your lines and be ready to zing you, like Reagan did with Mondale, because Reagan said he was ready for that line and had something in mind for it.
ROMANS: When they're writing, are they writing anything, Tevi? Honestly.
TROY: We tell the candidates to have their pen in hand and look down at the pad and pretend to be writing. If they want to write actual notes, they can do so. If they want to write doodles, they can. But not to do what Al Gore did in 2007, which is to roll your eyes and look exasperated. The visual cues are at least as important as the verbal messages that come out in the campaign.
ROMANS: And you have to be a master of the message and a master of the politics and policies but also have a stage presence.
TROY: Absolutely. In 2004, we looked at the tapes of Kerry's and Bush's previous tapes. And one thing Bush did masterfully in 2000 was when Gore stalked him across the stage -- gore came very close to him. Bush was in the middle of an answer and did a head check at Gore and put gore in his place. And we're told by a debate expert that was perfect visual cue, nonverbal cue, the kind of thing where Bush showed he was in command. He wasn't going to get flustered or let Gore's imposing bulk intimidate him.
ROMANS: It's moments like that, as a voter I don't know how well you can plan for those kinds of moments. Maybe that shows, really, who the candidate is. That's the real candidate coming through, the real person.
TROY: There's an element of that. You also try to control it to the extent possible -- you talk about President George H.W. Bush and checking his watch. We tell candidates not to bring their watches. When a candidate is pushed as in the 2000, there's nothing you can do to prepare him for that.
ROMANS: Are the candidates debating each other or are they debating the president and his policies?
TROY: The debates we have aren't so much debates as parallel press conferences. And I think what you want to do is show how you are able to make the case against president Obama. President Obama will be a formidable candidate. Obviously there are economic difficulties, but he will raise a lot of money and incumbents without a primary challenge intend to win. How you can make president Obama vulnerable, defeat him and present yourself to the American people not just in the Republican primaries but beyond as well.
ROMANS: Tevi Troy, thank you very much. You served on President Bush's 2004 debate team. Thank you for pulling back the curtain for us as we wind up to tonight. Thank you.
TROY: Enjoy the debate, thanks.
ROMANS: With election 2012 ramping up, we want to know what are the issues that are most important to you? That's our question of the day today. Here are some of your responses. Robert Vincent on the blog says "What should be done to improve race relations in America? Do you believe racism has ended in America?"
CHETRY: "Given that many candidates say they are pro-life, what change would you propose to protect the lives of estimated 18,000 to 20,000 people who currently die each year from lack of affordable health care. Please answer without discussing fault or Obamacare."
ROMANS: Carol from Washington on the blog says "Where are the jobs they promised we gave them a majority in the House? This is a calling to put up or shut up."
CHETRY: And we have on twitter, "How will each candidate return the proper funding for education on a federal level to each state?"
ROMANS: Interesting, jobs, education, health care. We'll have the first major debate of the election live for you tonight. I'm sure all of those issues will be touched beginning at 8:00 pm eastern here on CNN. Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: And speaking of education, how about the summer brain drain, the summer slide? Kids actually needing to come back to school in the fall and relearn two months-worth that they lost over the summer. Steve Perry joins us, our CNN education contributor, with some easy and affordable ways to prevent the brain drain. It's 39 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 42 minutes past the hour. Shot of Atlanta, Georgia, today. It's 76 right now, later going up to a high of 93. The dog days of summer, right, days are longer, temperatures are rising and kids are totally distracted at school, al sure signs that summer is right around the corner and summer break, of course.
So how do you keep your kids from backing up over the next couple of months and regressing when it comes to their learning? Here to talk about avoiding the summer brain drain and to keep your kids' minds from turning to mush is CNN contributor Steve Perry. Good to see you, Steve.
So they have this new study out by this summer school program saying basically kids come back to school two months behind, meaning they lose two months of learning during summer break. How do you prevent that?
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTIBUTOR: Quite a few ways. There's the traditional way, which first you can start with your kids' school. Ask them for summer reading or summer activities that they think the children should do.
Summer learning loss is a real issue. You cut two months off because of review. Put the exams on there at the end of the year and the middle of the year and you find yourself with a five-month school year that teachers find themselves teaching. It's a chopped-up school year. So you want to make sure that the kids have activities that are meaningful during the summer.
Some traditional ones are going to museums and libraries. Go off the beaten path. You can take them to a potential place where they may want to work. If they want to go work in media, they may want to go over to a newspaper and see how that works.
CHETRY: Part of it is making these little assignments, which is a really good idea for parents. Have the kids -- you don't want to sit there and make them do book reports all summer, but read and tell you what it is that they're reading. You mentioned you were the beneficiary of getting a unique opportunity, these Upward Bound programs and other things like that. Explain how kids could get involved.
PERRY: Upward Bound is but one program, but it's a phenomenally successful, federally funded program for students like I was, who were low-income, first generation in their family to go on to college. Six weeks of summer academic support as well as enrichment during the year over the course of four years.
It provides great opportunities for families who don't have the resources to pay somebody. If you do have resources to pay, there are both online and other courses that you can put your child through for math, science as well as reading and SATs and ACTs.
And then, of course, we often overlook television. I know television, for so many people, seems to be the evil empire. But I believe watching CNN or CNN student news helps children at least 10 to 15 minutes a day, because when you go back to school, you need to know what happened. You can't just know what you did with your friends. It actually -- the world is happening around you and children need to know what's going on.
So just like the parents are watching CNN right now, 15 to 30 minutes a day of watching our cable news or other cable news to find out what's going on in the world is essential to learning.
CHETRY: Right and I know that a lot of -- you know, because they have a lot of concerns, especially they say that kids were -- from lower income backgrounds actually end up being more of a victim to losing some of what they retain over the school year.
But you know, you have public libraries -- I know that they have Internet access right now. I know that they try to offer some programs as well for kids, you know, to get out there and take advantage of some of those resources that are available in your community. It's something that everybody should be thinking about.
PERRY: Right. Kiran, many people often overstate the digital divide. We did -- our school is 70 percent poverty. And we did a survey of our children to find out how many of them had Internet access. And we forget that they -- many of them have cell phones and many cell phones are Smartphones. And they have Internet access on that.
Kids will find Internet access. We simply need to help them to direct their efforts so they can do something other than surf it for fun and friends but actually learn.
And children need to learn during the summer. They absolutely do. Our school is a year-round school. So school starts back up for us on July 5th, but that's not the case for many families. Many families have two months worth of just dead air. And they have to find something meaningful to do other than lock the child up in the house, tell them don't answer the phone, don't answer the door and just hope that they enjoy themselves.
CHETRY: Exactly.
All right, well you gave us some good ideas. Steve Perry, good to see you as always, CNN education contributor and founder of Capital Prep Magnet School. Thanks so much for being with us.
PERRY: Thank you, Kiran.
CHETRY: Forty-six minutes past the hour. You're morning headlines coming up next.
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ROMANS: Its 48 minutes after the hour. Here are your morning headlines.
The first big matchup of the 2012 election is tonight. The GOP presidential debate, live from New Hampshire right here on CNN. Seven Republicans will be battling it out. New polls out this morning show Mitt Romney goes in with the lead.
Democrats and Republicans are calling for Congressman Anthony Weiner to resign as his sexting scandal just intensifies. New pictures posted on TMZ show Weiner in various states of undress in the House members gym. Weiner is taking a leave of absence from Congress and a "New York Daily News" report says he's exploring the possibility of stepping down.
East Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemmons is reportedly seriously ill this morning after suffering a stroke at his home in Florida. He has been Bruce Springsteen's right-hand man on stage from day one.
The markets open in 45 minutes and now the DOW, NASDAQ and S&P 500 futures are up after six straight weeks of declines.
Gabrielle Giffords is all smiles in the first public pictures of the Arizona Congresswoman since she was shot in the head back in January. She is expected to leave a Houston rehab facility by the end of the month and begin her outpatient treatment.
And the city of Dallas has a champion and it's not the Cowboys. The Dallas Mavericks finished off Lebron James and the Miami Heat last night with a 105-95 victory to win the NBA championship in six games. It's the first title in the history of the Mavs franchise.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back right after this break.
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CHETRY: Dallas, Texas, it's a beautiful day right now, sunny and 78. A little bit later it's going to be hot, triple digits, a high of 101. But they're just thrilled this morning that they're the NBA champs, so they don't care.
A spectacular crash by the way at the world famous 24 -- 24 hour of -- 24th hour of Le Mans in France. Check it out. The driver of this Audi clips the car which sends him crashing into the barrier wall, showering spectators and photographers with debris. The driver, believe it or not, was able to walk away from that crash. People were obviously shocked and terrified. No one was injured, though. Audi went on to win the 24-hour endurance race for a tenth time.
ROMANS: Wow.
CHETRY: Iron Man Mike Tyson, too emotional to even finish his speech when he was inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame yesterday. Tyson, the youngest heavyweight champ of all time, but the question will always remain, could he have actually been the best ever? Tyson shared the stage yesterday with a loveable underdog from Philly, Rocky Balboa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER STALLONE, ACTOR: And yo, Adrian, I did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Yes, Sylvester Stallone now has a spot in the boxing Hall of Fame for the "Rocky" movies. Stallone says it took three days to write "Rocky" and it ended up winning best picture in 1976.
Rob Marciano is in the Extreme Weather Center. You would have liked being there huh?
(CROSSTALK)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh that would have been sweet.
CHETRY: -- that boxing Hall of Fame?
MARCIANO: Absolutely, I always like to see the Hall of Fame guys get inducted in and you know broadcasters get into the Hall of Fames of baseball and football and basketball. So "Rocky" has a place.
CHETRY: And of course and you can't find a more iconic boxing movie right? All of the people will say "Raging Bull".
MARCIANO: Exactly. And then one and two and three and four -- what is it? Are we up to ten now?
CHETRY: I don't know.
MARCIANO: All the more to see, by the way.
Hey listen, we've got some thunderstorms that are rolling across parts of Missouri today under a severe thunderstorm watch there, just west of St. Louis up towards Kirkwood and down towards Chesterfield.
We're looking at these thunderstorms, most of which have some hail with them, have a little bit of gusty winds, maybe 50 to 60-mile- an-hour winds with these and are rolling down to the southeast fairly rapidly, so this watch box in effect until 1:00 this afternoon local time. And then, we'll look for this to be extended a little bit farther to the south and the east as we go through time.
And actually the storm center has a slight risk of seeing some more severe weather in this area, stretching back toward northeastern Colorado. Stretching back towards New Mexico, eastern Arizona, where we've got that fire that's still burning only 10 percent containment there. So it's in there for the long haul. And we don't obviously see any rainfall here until the monsoon kicks up in the next few weeks.
Bad air quality with the smoke obviously coming from the southwest towards the northeast and we still have a critical fire danger in effect for parts of New Mexico and northern Texas today because of the wind and the dry weather associated with this storm that will fire off those thunderstorms along the front.
Cool. Comfortably cool across parts of the northeast after a very hot week last week, including Chicago, through D.C., through New York City. Shattered records last week and those temperatures are out or below average there but southwest pretty steamy, still.
Roswell, New Mexico, 107 -- not even fit for an alien there; Midland, Texas, seeing 105; and parts of Georgian seeing temperatures touch the 100 degrees mark yesterday and these numbers will hang around.
A lot of these cities down across south including Houston, Dallas and New Orleans and Atlanta haven't seen temperatures below 90, at least for daytime highs, for a good couple of weeks. It will be 70 though in Chicago. Enjoy that and 75 in New York City; continued comfortably cool and unsettled with just a few clouds today.
Nice working with you Kiran. You're going to have some company tomorrow, I hope?
CHETRY: What's the -- oh what's company tomorrow? You? Are you coming up here?
MARCIANO: No, no. I would be happy to.
CHETRY: Oh, yes, Christine will be back in place tomorrow. Yes, she will. And so will Ali. I thought you meant company at my house. I'm thinking -- I haven't done any grocery shopping, Rob. I don't know what you're talking about.
MARCIANO: Well, we're all showing up. So get busy.
CHETRY: By the way, if you want to cool off, stay inside and watch "Rocky VI" there was one, Rocky Balboa that was the one.
MARCIANO: Nice. All right we'll be there.
CHETRY: So we've got six movies to entertain you this morning. Feel it.
MARCIANO: Sure all right.
CHETRY: We take a quick break, 55 minute past the hour.
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ROMANS: And we're live this morning from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, the site of the first in the nation presidential primary and tonight's Republican presidential debate. Seven Republicans battling it out; new polls out this morning show Mitt Romney goes in with the lead.
And Kiran this is going to be about these seven trying to break out, right? They're going to be trying to break out and show what makes them different. Also, I suspect they're going to be striking out a little bit against the President and his policies.
In just about 11 hours, first major debate of the election kicks off. We've got it covered for you live tonight beginning at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. We have to get in a nap, so that we can get up and watch the debate and then be back to show everybody the highlights tomorrow morning bright and early.
ROMANS: Bright and early tomorrow.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Thanks.
CHETRY: See you back here next to me tomorrow.
Meantime CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra Phillips starts right now. Hey Kyra.
