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Piers Morgan Live

Ahmadinejad at the U.N.; Nate Silver's Predictions; Big Names and Big Ideas at CGI

Aired September 26, 2012 - 21:00   ET

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

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Tonight, nuclear threat in the Middle East. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he is the victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN (Through Translator): No one feels secure or safe. Even those who have a stock pile, thousands of atomic bombs and other arms in their arsenals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: The "New York Times'" Nick Kristof tells me what it will take to keep Iran from getting a bomb.

Last battleground, Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't see a lot of victims. I see hardworking Ohioans.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We can't afford four more years like the last four years. We've got to get this economy going again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: The campaigns go head to head. What the very latest numbers mean? I'll ask polling guru Nate Silver if Romney can win without Ohio.

And big ideas from the big names. Deepak Chopra, Will.i.am, General Wesley Clark and Princess Ameerah al-Taweel. Things get pretty lively at the Clinton Global Initiative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: You want to make farming sexy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: And some furious talk from the angriest man in the America. Lewis Black.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS BLACK, COMEDIAN: The whole world is coming here, and what (INAUDIBLE), you're screwing up the traffic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: This is PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT.

Good evening. Our big story tonight. Ahmadinejad at the U.N. made his final speech as president of Iran. Today's speech was, for him, relatively low key, dare I say almost reasonable. No walkouts from diplomats this time around, although the U.S. and Canadian delegations stayed away. And Israel's representatives were also absent because of Yon Kapur.

But even so, President Ahmadinejad didn't pass on the opportunity to paint Iran as the victim and to blame Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMADINEJAD (Through Translator): Testing neo-generations of ultra modern weaponry and the pledge to disclose this armaments on due time is now being used as a neo-language of threat against nations to course them into accepting an new era of hegemony. Continue threat by the uncivilized Zionist to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Nick Kristof spent some time in Iran this summer. He's a columnist of the "New York Times" and his best-selling book with his wife Sheryl WuDunn is "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," having turned into a series on PBS, and Nick joins me now.

Nick, President Ahmadinejad is a fascinating character, whichever way you look at him, whatever you think of him, love him, loathe him, he's a man who commands attention. Oddly today, he just seemed to be on his best behavior. What do you --what do you read into that?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK TIMES": Well, I mean, you said his speech was a little more reasonable this year. It was reasonable by Ahmadinejad.

MORGAN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

KRISTOF: Not by sort of normal conventional standards. I mean, after all he suggested that 9/11 was some kind of dark conspiracy and for him to accuse other countries of nuclear responsibility is a little bit rich. But, you know, I think that he has been under pressure at home, frankly, for this wackiness. A lot of Iranians are just embarrassed.

MORGAN: Yes. KRISTOF: By the bad press that he brings his country. And he's almost out of time. He'll be out of office in a year from now. He's also -- he's losing power within the country. So I think he's a declining force. Thank goodness.

MORGAN: Does the president of Iran really have much power?

KRISTOF: Well, that really depends on the situation. I mean the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, is the person who is truly running the country. If the president has the Supreme Leader's confidence, or beyond the road, if the Supreme Leader is ill, then the president could. Right now there is real tension between them and Ahmadinejad is really marginalized both of the Supreme Leader and vis- a-vis other political factions.

MORGAN: The big question remains if Israel carries out with its increasingly high threat to take some kind of preemptive action against Iran believing it is developing a nuclear weapon what America's response should be. What do you imagine it would be? Does it depend on who wins the election?

KRISTOF: Well, I think one thing Israel is -- or at least some people in Israel are trying to do is to push the U.S. to kind of do it for them. And the argument is that, look, if we end up with the strike on Iranian nuclear sites that will start a larger war. We're not going to be able to do it properly, and you're going to be involved anyway. So you may as well go in and you've got the bunker busters, you can take out the centrifuges at Natanz for example.

And -- so, you know, that is one possibility, we be pushed into it from the beginning. Another possibility is that Iran would immediately escalate, immediately widen it, and in that case, you know, we would end up being drawn in. I think it's one of the -- it's one of the things I worry about in the period up to the election. I don't think it's likely. Is it possible? Absolutely.

MORGAN: Were you surprised or dismayed or both by Barack Obama refusing to sit down with any world leaders this week?

KRISTOF: You know, I was -- I did think that was missed opportunity. Now obviously he's concerned about the presidential election. But he's also our president. And I think that just as he gets a little extra bang for the buck when he gives a speech, as oppose to Romney giving it, then he also has a responsibility to take this time, the U.N. General Assembly, once a year and, you know, meet a few more crucial leaders. I think -- I think that was unfortunate that he basically left the heavy lifting for Hillary Clinton.

MORGAN: When I talked to Ahmadinejad he was quite keen to try and sort of -- I guess move on the game in the Middle East by saying America's place is not to continue to get involved. You can already see, he says, a lot of difficulties arising from intervention. Let democracy, freedom, whatever you want to call it come organically through the people.

Now very self-serving even to say this -- (CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: The last thing he would allow, of course, in his own country.

KRISTOF: Or in Syria.

MORGAN: Right.

KRISTOF: Yes.

MORGAN: Where he is almost certainly helping out his friend, Assad.

KRISTOF: And I was amused that in regards to Syria he said we're friends with both sides.

MORGAN: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: But on to that point, though, America's place in all this, the Arab Spring was terribly exciting and the American media covered it with great glee and said this is the feature. It's all going to be fantastic. Reality has kicked in. Should America's intervention now be reigned back or is this a time to really get more involved?

KRISTOF: Well, we were in a sense playing a public master role in the past when dictators were there. That role is no longer open to us. I don't think that we have an option of disengaging completely. We have huge interests there. On the other hand, though, I don't think we can play that traditional role. I think we -- I think it's going to be bumpier, frankly. But I sure hope that all the tumult isn't going to lead us to just give up and turn away. That isn't going to work either.

MORGAN: President Obama spoke yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative about the need to end sex trafficking. And you have a new documentary out about empowering women around the world. Let's take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTOF: There are 10 little rooms in the brothel, shabby little rooms, essentially with just a bed. They lock from the outside. Presumably that's so a (INAUDIBLE) girl can be locked up inside and the customer is brought to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: That was you raiding a brothel in Cambodia.

Again, I suppose, at your discretion, what should America be doing? What more can it be doing in places like Cambodia to tackle this kind of thing? KRISTOF: Yes. Obama's speech was a terrific step forward. And I wish that we in the press had -- should give that a little more spotlight. I think it's a milestone.

We can -- this is something where -- we can use our moral authority to shine a light on other countries. There was a 12-year- old girl we rescued in that brothel. And I e-mailed her overnight to ask, well, you know, what did you think of the Obama speech? And she e-mailed back in broken English that, you know, thank you Mr. Obama.

MORGAN: Fantastic.

KRISTOF: And I have seen that, you know, we -- just by raising the issue we can put that on the -- on the agenda in other countries. We also of course have to do much more at home. We have a real trafficking problem right here.

MORGAN: Yes, we certainly do. Well, the previous documentary, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," it premiers Monday, October 1st, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Thanks very much and good to see you.

KRISTOF: My pleasure. Good to see you.

MORGAN: OK.

With just 41 days to go until the election, both President Obama and Mitt Romney hit the campaign trail on the crucial battleground state of Ohio where early voting begins next Tuesday. Listen first to Governor Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: A lot of people can talk. Talk is cheap. You can be extraordinarily eloquent and describe all the wonderful things you can do. But when you cut through the words you can look at the record. And when you can see policies that have not created the jobs America needs then you know it's time to choose a new leader, get a coach, get America growing again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Strong words from Mitt Romney, but doesn't seem to helping him much in the polls. In the new "New York times"/CBS News and Quinnipiac Poll has President Obama with a nine-point lead. And in Pennsylvania the news is frankly even worse. The president has a 12-point lead over Mitt Romney.

So how bad is all this for the Romney campaign?

Joining me now is Nate Silver. He is a genius behind the 538 blog and the author of "The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Failed But Some Don't."

Nate, welcome. NATE SILVER, AUTHOR, "THE SIGNAL AND THE NOISE": Thank you.

MORGAN: You are a genius. You're one of these weird people that has just an extraordinary grasp for a particular area of expertise. In your case, with this book, "Predictions." So the obvious question for you is 41 day to go, who is going to win?

SILVER: Sure. Well, we have odds that we update every day on our site. One thing I talk about in the book is that I think like a gambler and I'm trying to handicap what are the respective probabilities and we have Obama right now as about an 80 percent favorite. So that means four out of every five times.

But number has been going -- been going up. We actually had it first -- it's beginning to peak after the conventions but since Romney's 47 percent comments, Obama has gotten a kind of second wind, where it's ordinarily appeared with it, having a convention bounce, you'd see his numbers start to decline instead.

You talked about the Quinnipiac polls are maybe some of the best numbers we've seen for Obama in any state all year.

MORGAN: This is pretty worrying, isn't it, for Mitt Romney? I mean on almost all the swing states you look at, the momentum is moving to Barack Obama pretty quickly. However, we've been here before. I mean Jimmy Carter was doing very well, ended up losing. So what should we read into these polls? All the candidates depending on how they're doing give them credence or no credence? What is the reality of their value?

SILVER: Right now Obama in these Quinnipiac Polls is at 53 percent in each of these states, which means it's not good enough anymore for Romney to pick up the undecided voters. He has to have something happen to people who right now say they're going to vote for Obama which might mean like a crisis and you're out. I think the most bullish sign for Romney over the past 48 hours has been at the stock market, it's getting very jittery again about Spain and Europe. That kind of October surprise scenario could move the numbers but Romney is running out of time for routine things like the debates and the set pieces in the campaign.

MORGAN: How important -- I mean President Bill Clinton told me last night that the debates are going to be crucial for Romney. That he could turn everything around. One great debate, in the first debate particularly, if he can turn around the 47 percent fiasco. It's what he's been through. Unquestionably a disaster because of the impression it gave that (INAUDIBLE) we understand who that 47 percent was.

SILVER: Right.

MORGAN: And being the kind of arrogant that comes for being a wealthy, detached guy, not really caring about people who need help. What can he do in that debate? What would you recommend him to do?

SILVER: Well, you know, I think what the 47 percent comments revealed is that he wasn't doing what politics 101 says you should do and play to -- play to the center. He's written off people who might have the median income or below. And that's not a typical strategy and so, you know, I think the textbook strategy is, can you find a way? And the speech he gave in Ohio was actually a decent example of that where he's not touting out some ideology, he's saying look, I can be a reasonable competent manager. And Obama has not done well enough on the economy.

That was his message at first and -- then he's (INAUDIBLE) around so much trying to find different approaches which is what you do when you're losing and you get worried when, you know, frankly, he should have stuck to the message he had all along, I think, instead of trying to, for example, pick Paul Ryan and play -- now we're going to have a discussion about the issues, right?

MORGAN: Would he have done better having someone like Marco Rubio, for example?

SILVER: Sure. I think --

MORGAN: And gone for the Latino vote. At least he would have brought in something new. You get a sense with Paul Ryan, he's just another version of Mitt Romney.

SILVER: Right.

MORGAN: And that's not giving him a new air of voters coming in.

SILVER: Yes. The base didn't need Paul Ryan because they had Barack Obama. And that was enough of a reason for the Republican base to turn out. To oust the president from office.

MORGAN: Nate Silver, fascinating stuff. The book is fascinating. I love the fact in your book there are two categories of hero. Weather forecasters and gamblers.

SILVER: Of course. So what weather forecasters and gamblers have in common is that they do think about things in terms of probability. So you hear a 20 percent chance of rain and it might be frustrating because they aren't giving you an exact answer. And likewise, if you play poker, and I've made my living playing poker for a couple of years, you know that sometimes your opponent will catch that one card in 52, it will make them a miracle and beat yours.

MORGAN: And your prediction for Mitt Romney at the moment is storm clouds, possibly hurricane --

SILVER: Some -- yes.

(CROSSTALK)

SILVER: The metaphor of drawing to an inside (INAUDIBLE) is not -- is not far off. At least about a one in 10 chance and I think if he's polls look like this after the first debate that's where we're going to be at. We're going to be looking at a one in 10 chance a real error in the polling or a real October surprise. He's got maybe a little bit of a window now but the thing is you lose time and now if you want to switch to a sports analogy, right, if Obama leads by a touchdown, so to speak, in the first question, doesn't mean very much. We're now kind of in the fourth quarter and Romney just may be fumble on the 47 percent, giving Obama possession again.

And you know, that's a pretty difficult deficit to overcome. Nothing physically impossible about it but you need to catch a couple of breaks.

MORGAN: Well, the one good thing, he's got going for him, as you say, many predictions fail.

Nate Silver, good to see you.

SILVER: Thank you.

MORGAN: Coming up. Celebrity power success and the importance of helping others. My all-star panel at the Clinton Global Initiative.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: The Clinton Global Initiative encourages big ideas from world leaders and celebrities to help others around the world. I spoke with President Clinton yesterday and I sat down with my CGI panel.

The Saudi philanthropist, Her Highness Princess Ameerah al- Taweel, health and wellness guru, Deepak Chopra, recording artist Will.i.am and retired General Wesley Clark.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: Let's start with you. Princess Ameerah, let me start with you, because you're a fascinating lady in many ways. You come from Saudi, obviously, where you've been in the vanguard of promoting women's rights in a country that's not been renowned for that over the last few centuries.

How important is it to you to be doing this in Saudi Arabia?

H.H. PRINCESS AMEERAH AL-TAWEEL, VICE CHAIR OF ALWALEED BIN TALAL FOUNDATION: I think women's rights not only are, like you said, at the vanguard of what we really need to focus on in Saudi Arabia but also in the region. And I think that the strongest form of empowering women in the region and more specifically Saudi Arabia is economic independence. Because once a woman is counting on herself, she will not put up with a lot of things that you see in the media.

And if you're talking about numbers, a lot of people focus about women and driving in Saudi Arabia. But not being able to drive has not stopped us from developing. One hundred and twenty billion Saudi riyal worth of real estate are owned by Saudi women. Forty-five billion Saudi riyal in bank account savings are for Saudi women. Eight billion riyals of investments are pumped by Saudi women. All of these women go to work. All of them are very passionate about what they do.

And driving has not stopped them. And if anyone in this room really want to help women in the region, economic independence, I can never underline that, it's the first thing to focus on.

MORGAN: General Clark, the Middle East is obviously of huge importance. Has been (INAUDIBLE) my lifetime particularly so now. I talked to President Clinton about the ratcheting up now in rhetoric between Israel and Iran and what that may do to the region if they did have a conflict, what it may do to the global economy, which is in a perilous enough condition as it is. What is your overview at the moment of where we -- where we are and is war likely or more common sense prevailed, do you think?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Well, I believe common sense will prevail but I think it's going to be a tough slog. I think you've got in every state in the region, you've got external dynamics and you've got internal dynamics. Certainly that's the case in Iran. So they're going to have to find a way to climb down from their quest for nuclear weapons. But throughout the region, there's a search for modernization, for jobs, for dignity, for self respect.

They've got to create political systems. They've got freedom now and freedom of expression in many states that haven't had it before. And this then imposes new responsibilities on ordinary citizens to set the right standards. There are unhappy people and people struggling in every country in the world including America. And I think we have to have a more sophisticated understanding of the region. We have a role to play there. But these people are responsible for their own countries and finding their own way forward.

We can help but they have to do it.

MORGAN: Deepak, we've seen an extraordinary sea change. I mean I joined CNN on air January last year and was immediately hit by Tunisia, Egypt, Libya. The death of bin Laden. I mean these are cataclysmic moments, each individually. Never mind put together. The Arab Spring seemed to bring such excitement.

We're now looking at a slightly murkier picture. Not quite sure what is going on in many of these countries. What can America or what should America do if anything to hasten or to change the current process?

DEEPAK CHOPRA, HEALTH AND WELLNESS GURU: It should inspire hope, trust, stability and compassion. I think people look to America as a leader and if we can inspire hope, trust, stability and compassion with practical things like the princess said, the economic empowerment of women. Everyone knows in the United Nations that's the fastest way to change the world in the direction of not only peace but social justice, economic justice, sustainability, health and well-being. It is 50 percent of the population of our planet and they're disembarked for the most part.

MORGAN: Will, I was talking to the general out there and he was saying that the impact of having musicians come to this initiative here really cannot be underestimated that you can just get to these huge audiences who hang on your every word. I know that you take that responsibility seriously. Globalization is here and it's real. And has also said I think for many we don't want to be the global policemen anymore with the terrible toll both in the loss of life to our soldiers and also economically

WILL.I.AM, BLACK EYED PEAS: Yes, well, this transparent world that we live in now, you know, America has to realize that now we're a part of the world. We're not leading the world. We do in some shape or form. But when it comes to education we're not. We're dead last when it comes to education. And as the world becomes more technological, 20 years from now, what is America? When you didn't even educate the people to understand the technology that we're going to be relying upon?

So, you know -- and if you go to ghettos, you know, I survived and escaped the ghetto, moved my whole family out, people in the ghetto have no clue of where we're going to technologically. And STEM is the future. You know, that's what we need to get these 7-year-olds geared upon. We need to get them excited about STEM and that's sustainability as well. It's a different type of sustainability, it's educating people to walk into the world where they could contribute and participate in this global community year 2040.

MORGAN: Princess Ameerah, the common thread throughout the Middle Eat and indeed America, is a lot of young people who have had perhaps education they couldn't have had before, certainly in many Middle Eastern countries, so they're better educated but there's no job at the end of the line for them. And this creates huge resentment and frustration, so much so that you've seen a lot of leaders being toppled. And I'm sure there'll be more to come.

But what is the ethos that leaders and countries need to adopt to try and stop this horrible cycle now of a youth who just feel disenfranchise and not able to fulfill their potential?

AL-TAWEEL: Economic development. When you have young people who have amazing ideas, entrepreneurial spirit, 60 percent of those jobs that need to be created will be through entrepreneurs. But you don't have banks that believe in them, you don't have people that support them. You don't have incubators and mentors to help lead with them. And so when you don't have the ecosystem to actually deal with this huge issue, add to that the governments that have fallen, the new structures, civil society, all of these issues at the same time, it's not going to be easy.

But, you know, it all takes action. And we're taking action. We're starting an initiative called Up for Unity. It's not just about job creation and helping entrepreneurs grow. It's more about having ladders of opportunity. And that's what Up for Unity is all about. We're working with partners, we're working with the Clinton Global Initiative. And we want to tap into the resources, the (INAUDIBLE) of many partners around the world and great those ladders of opportunity.

And we have an idea like the first food university, which is very interesting.

MORGAN: This is great. This is the food university. My idea of total utopia. So, you described -- I won't put any words in your mouth, but you want to make farming sexy, don't you?

(LAUGHTER)

AL-TAWEEL: I don't know -- we want to make farming cool again and, you know, what's happening with farming is that the average age of farmers is 60. Can you imagine that? We're trying to bring cool back to farming through this university. We're talking everything from the minute you plant a seed to the minute it gets served on a plate. The whole supply chain. And we're bringing people from around the world.

We want to have it in Africa because 60 percent, we have two billion coming in the next three decades. How are we going to feed them? Sixty percent of amazing crops are stuck in Africa and unused. And so we want to tap into that. We want to have it in Africa, we want to have it in the best way possible and so it's all about technology, agriculture, making farming cool again where young people come back into that field. We cannot afford to lose young people being interesting in farming.

MORGAN: And presumably we want female drivers for the tractors.

AL-TAWEEL: Hopefully yes.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: When we come back I'll ask my all-star CGI panel, is America the world leader it should be? And can this country do better? And speaking of all-stars, take a look at that all-star audience. Including Barbra Streisand.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Lots of big ideas from my all-star panel at the Clinton Global Initiative. They are Highness Princess Amira al-Taweel, Deepak Chopra, will.i.am, and retired General Wesley Clarke. And they are pretty fired up about health and education.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: Deepak, your special area of interest here at the CGI is about health and wellness. That's incredibly important. There's no point having this burgeoning global population if they are not healthy and not well.

CHOPRA: I am a senior scientist at Gallup. We monitor well being in different countries, the well being of individuals, the well being of communities, the well being of nations. And if you want to go to Gallup.com today, you can check out the well being of any country in the world as of this moment. So the United States is number 13 at the moment. Number one is Denmark. Number two is Canada and then --

MORGAN: Why are the Danes so healthy?

CHOPRA: Because they have social security. They are not worried about health insure. They are looked after. And they're not greedy. They don't all want to become billionaires.

(CROSS TALK)

CHOPRA: But here is what we found. This is very important. So we classify people on a scale of one to 100. So if your score is over 70, you are thriving. If your score is 40 to 70, you are struggling. And if it is less than 40, you are suffering.

When a country starts to suffer, you are going to see revolution, social unrest, breakdown of leadership. So we knew what was happening in Libya. We knew what was going to happen in Tunisia. We knew what was happening in Egypt. And we can predict what's going to happen in Syria, just based on well being.

So it is the number one indicator.

MORGAN: Will, let's turn to your area here, because, again, I talked to you about this. But there is a brilliant scene at the start of "Newsroom," which was the Aaron Sorkin show that came out this year, where Jeff Daniels, who is the anchorman, if you like, goes into this huge rant at a college lecture about where America has been failing. And he starts to list all the areas in which America is painfully low on the global list of -- whether it's science or engineering or technology, whatever it may be.

What has happened to the American dream that has allowed things to get so low in so many key areas? Why is the rest of the world overtaking and what should be done about it?

WILL.I.AM: I think it is really priorities and values and greed, really. At the end of the day, it is greed and lack of leadership, to the point where I don't see why it makes sense that we spend so much money on prisons versus education. That doesn't make any sense to me at all. I don't see why we can't manufacture things in America. I don't get it.

MORGAN: General, you're itching to get in?

CLARK: I want to pitch in on manufacturing for a second. You know, one of the problems we have with American manufacturing is we are an older manufacturing economy. We are used to paper orders and contract processes and other things. If you go to China and you look at a network like AliBaba, they have national sourcing electronically.

So we know one of the things we can do in America is we can move more into the Internet age in our manufacturing, in our bidding and our ordering process.

MORGAN: Is China the enemy that many Americans see it as? Or should it be a global trading partner to mutual benefit?

AL-TAWEEL: I think that we live in a very diverse world and we need to embrace that. If China is excelling in something, that is great. But guess what, America is excelling in technology as well. I think that with China, what we need to create, like you said, it could burst -- it's a bubble that could burst at any time -- is ladders of opportunity. Many people are stuck in those factories for hours doing the same thing every day for years.

And so creating those ladders of opportunity, working with these big corporates, where people can strive to become in better jobs with better lives. And so I am not against a certain country or certain nation excelling something. I'm actually embracing that.

WILL.I.AM: Yes, but, at the same time, countries are going to do what they do. But America has to figure out what it is we are. We are our own enemy right now. Somebody still hasn't told me why we spend so much money on prisons and not for education? Why does that just slip over people's -- why does it go one ear --

CHOPRA: Prisons is a better business. Prisons are privately enterprised.

WILL.I.AM: Yeah, but why is that -- who said that was OK? I don't --

Just answer me.

MORGAN: I agree. Who did say that was okay?

CHOPRA: Who said drones were OK? Who said drones were OK? Who said economic injustice is OK. Who says 50 percent of the world is living on less than two dollars a day, 20 percent less than one dollar a day?

WILL.I.AM: I travel the planet. One day, I'm in Brazil. The next day, I'm in Slovakia. The next day, I go to little nuggets, Kazakhstan. The majority of the people in prisons are Latins and African-Americans. From my community, where I come from, I have to bring STEM to them, to stimulate them, to inspire them to not take that route. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't.

Somebody -- it is an emergency right now. It is a national security issue. The Department of Defense needs educated Americans around STEM. If we are not educating them and the private sector said it is OK that prisons is a big business, but education isn't, that is messed up. I'm sorry.

(CROSS TALK)

CLARK: To echo what Will is saying, I'm all in favor of STEM education. But just think about the high school dropout problem in America. We have 28 percent of our young people in this country who aren't graduating -- 28 percent.

MORGAN: On education, though, America's big problem, it seems to me, is that the teachers aren't paid enough, so they're not motivated enough, and they're not trained well enough.

CHOPRA: Go to any college, university campus. This is the cradle of innovation. This is where Facebook came out from, Twitter, Google, everything that we can think of --

(CROSS TALK)

CHOPRA: -- that is changing the world came from Apple, Yahoo!, you name it. It's all -- you know, it is coming from here. And you go -- this is where the Republicans need to address immigration policies. You go to a college campus and you see people from Korea, China. You see people from Asia. You see people from Latin America. This is the country which everyone criticizes and yet wants to immigrate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: Next, big names with big goals. I'll ask my CGI panel what they hope to achieve and how long it will take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: We are all here for the Clinton Global Initiative. You have, in your own way, your own particular areas that you're pushing here. And social media is a hugely important part of that. Why is the CGI now so important to so many people in your position?

AL-TAWEEL: Because of what you are seeing in front of you. You are seeing world leaders sitting next to an entrepreneur -- young entrepreneur, a person who just started an NGO, same level, all talking about committing to something. That's what makes CGI special. You wouldn't see that in other platforms.

You would see those in power sitting with those in power, and disregarding those who are just starting, who could be the next leaders of their own cause. I see a lot of young people coming in with so much confidence. And they want to talk about what they want to do and how you can be involved.

MORGAN: General Clark, your particular area, energy, oil, tell me a little briefly about that and your relation to CGI over that.

CLARK: I think we got to -- we have got to understand our responsibilities as global citizens. Global warming, climate change, it is a fact. We had the lowest ice pack at the end of the season in Arctic Ocean ever. Now they are saying maybe ice free in the summer not in 2050, but maybe even as early as 2020.

So we do have a responsibility. In the United States, we are about the only educated country, or OECD country, let me put it that way, that will argue that this isn't primarily a human problem. So somehow we have to take this political system, we have to move it the right way. And it is time for the United States in this area to lead. We didn't lead. We should have lead. After Kyoto, it is time right now, urgently, for the United States to team with China and lead us forward out of where we are in carbon, and into a new responsibility as global citizens.

AL-TAWEEL: The United States doesn't have to go through a battle to lead the world. You are already leading. You have other leaders who are emerging out there, which is fine. This is a globalized world. It's not a hegemony for anyone. So just embrace them, keep inspiring, and keep doing what you are doing. And believe in young people. Believe in technology and science and have leaders like them lead the way.

WILL.I.AM: It's a marathon, so it's not -- it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm 37. I've done all the things you could possibly do with music, and I never thought I would be able to do those things when I was in the ghetto. I never thought I was going to play the Grammys or work with Michael Jackson or do the Queen's Jubilee or the World Cup or the Super Bowl or --

MORGAN: Or most importantly, this panel.

WILL.I.AM: Or the panel, no. I never thought that NASA would beam -- send a rocket to Mars, and when the Rover lands on Mars, beam the song back to the Planet Earth to educate and inspire these kids to take an interest in STEM. From 37 to 57, I'm dedicating 20 years of my life to STEM, to get these kids stimulated, to create a whole new system in America, starting with my little neighborhood, Boyo (ph) Heights, and turn these people into entrepreneurs and innovators.

MORGAN: Good for you.

(APPLAUSE)

CLARK: We have a responsibility in America not just to inspire as individuals with our values, but also to take our political system forward and continue to inspire that way.

MORGAN: Bringing things to an end by giving the lady the final word.

AL-TAWEEL: I was just going to say, I was asked if -- which president would I like to say reelected. I said Bill Clinton. He's a true leader. He gathered all of us here today. You know, I just want to thank such inspiring leaders. You all believe in what you are doing.

And I think that the more leaders we have in such fields, the better the world would be.

MORGAN: The good news is I spoke to Bill Clinton about the 22nd Amendment, which prohibits him from running again. A, he wants that changed. He actually said he thinks it would be a good idea, so he could have a break and then come back. I wonder who he is thinking of. Secondly, I said to him, if you can't do that, we would like to change our rules in Britain and have you as our prime minister, to which he replied he's apparently, because of his upbringing, his family background -- he can run for president of Ireland or France, which I was amazed about.

So we may see the new French president in five years, Bill Clinton. Oo la la. Anyway, you've been a very captive audience. Thank you so much. I would like to thank General Clark and Deepak Chopra and will.i.am, Princess Amira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: Lots of great ideas came out of the Clinton Global Initiative and from my panel. Coming up, a rather different take on the issues from the angriest man in America, Lewis Black.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Lewis Black is, let's face it, the angriest man in America, a fact he's demonstrated more than once in his comedy specials and appearances on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."

So watch out, from a distance, he is about to unleash hell, while returning to Broadway with his show, "Running on Empty." Lewis joins me again now. How are you, Lewis? Foaming at the mouth as usual?

LEWIS BLACK, COMEDIAN: Now it's really wonderful now. Things really -- now we've got only 41 days of -- to go right now, which is really the equivalent of -- it's three and a half light years. It would be easier if you actually took this time in terms what it would feel like every day to listen to them all the time -- you could -- you could -- the equivalent of getting to Pluto.

MORGAN: This has been going on, this election campaign, since I joined CNN. I feel like I have visibly aged in the time they got to making a decision. I mean, in Britain, we have a six-week election campaign. This is about six years.

BLACK: Yes, no, Canada very short, everybody else. We like to make it the equivalent of Ramadan and Christmas. And that's not even enough. It's like ten Ramadans. It goes on for decades. There's no reason. And then at the end of it, in the midst of the most beautiful time of year, our summer, all we have really -- all we have left on this -- in this country is our summer, our time. It stays out later, you think are going to live forever. And then these idiots show up to do a four-day pep rally. It's not right.

MORGAN: Shouldn't you be fasting or something? It's Yom Kippur. You're Jewish. What are you doing here anyway?

BLACK: When you called, I called my rabbi and said, you know, Piers has asked me to come on; can I please eat? I don't -- as -- many Jews aren't watching right now, they would be upset. But I gave it up. I gave it up when I was very young because you go to temple, they play a thing called Cold Nedrad (ph), the opening kind of song as you're entering, which is basically they took all of Alfred Hitchcock's music and made it one horrifying -- it's the freakiest. It's just creepy.

MORGAN: It can't be worse than the Catholic music I have to endure sometimes --

(CROSS TALK)

BLACK: But that's just kind of, oh he ho ho hum. But this is you're afraid bats will fly in.

MORGAN: Here's the weird thing about this week. You have every world leader converging on New York. And yet the only thing anyone is talking about is NFL football and this Fail Mary Pass.

BLACK: Yeah. Well, it's because all we -- besides the summer, now all we have is football, because it's the only place for millions of Americans, including myself, to vent anger. And it would be kind of legitimized, where you can sit, scream, yell anything you want. You can yell, I hate this, I don't like that. It doesn't even have to do with the game. You can just bellow like a lunatic.

And now they -- and it's one thing to watch your two teams go at it. And then you add people who are like -- it's substitute teachers, you know. It's like chaos. It's utter chaos.

MORGAN: I find it -- as somebody who obviously prefers the real football, the one with the round ball, I find it very comical, I must say. The idea that there's such a multi-billion dollar business can be wrecked by a bunch of amateur referees over a dispute involving relative like dimes, isn't it. It's not even a big amount of money.

BLACK: It's extraordinary. No, really, what I love, though, is that all of a sudden this whole thing about the class warfare in the United States -- all of a sudden the owners are now -- everybody is screaming, left or right. The billion dollar owners can't pay! All of a sudden, they are the billion -- they are the only ones would have to give up the money. Give it up to those referees because it's Sunday football!

And it is. It's vital. You got to get through it.

MORGAN: Was it a touchdown?

BLACK: What?

MORGAN: Was it a touchdown?

BLACK: I don't think it was a touchdown.

MORGAN: I can't let you go without mentioning Ahmadinejad. Everybody else has had him. I sat down with him. He's been here. He appears to be on some weird charm offensive this week. Are you falling for him?

BLACK: No, I'm not falling for him, but I do think maybe his -- the one who is giving him his meds has finally found the right balance. You see these people -- and I have dated a lot of them. And they are bipolar one day, and they're obsessive/compulsive the next. And you are watching them work through their meds. He may have found his meds.

And you know what's amazing, the other thing about the fact that all this stuff, all of those people here in New York, the whole world coming here, and what do New Yorkers talk about? They are screwing up the traffic. Those bastards come here to our city. What are they doing? They're talking? I got no time for it.

MORGAN: I couldn't agree more. Get your priorities right. Lewis, thank you so much. Always a pressure to see you raging away.

Two quick plugs for you, "Running On Empty," Lewis Black on Broadway, the Richard Rogers Theater, October 9th to 14th and 19th to 20th. Tickets still available. And even more intriguing, "One Slight Hit," a play written by Lewis Black at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, October the 2nd to the 28th. You're a busy boy, Lewis.

BLACK: Oh, yeah.

MORGAN: Thank you for sparing me the time.

Coming next, only in America. Forget the Fail Mary. In defense of replacements. Yes, you heard me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: For tonight's Only in America, personal foul. From coast to coast, outrage is building over Monday night's Fail Mary pass that led to the Green Bay Packers' hotly disputed loss to the Seattle Seahawks. You heard Bill Clinton last night telling me its time to end the strike of NFL referees. But is it really fair to blame the replacement refs? After all, they are just amateurs doing their best under extremely pressurized circumstances, a situation that's not at all uncommon, especially in the Green Bay area.

Take a look at this, for example, from our Green Bay affiliate, NBC 26.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two hundred degrees below today, we're looking at. And it's really going to heat up, it's going to be like 346 degrees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here. What is going on?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Certainly didn't get the weather off, even by 300 degrees. Give these replacements a break. You may never know when you need one, even if they can't be entirely trusted.

BLACK: That's it for us tonight. Tomorrow night, the annoying Brit twit will be back on the air. They never give me an opportunity to talk to anybody but myself, even when he's sitting here. Stay tuned. For now, it's "Anderson Cooper 360."