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Storm Bears Down On Northeast; Romney Talks Economy; Obama Opens Up to Rolling Stone; Berlusconi Given Four Years in Prison for Tax Fraud; Violence in Syria Despite "Ceasfire"; Finding A Culinary Getaway; Monster Storm Aims For Northeast; Romney Talks Economy

Aired October 26, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We are taking you around the world in 60 minutes. Here's what we are working on right now.

This is not what a cease-fire is supposed to look like. Street fighting in Homs, Syria, on the first day of a major Muslim holiday. Both sides, government troops and rebel fighters, agreed to lay down their guns through the weekend. It certainly doesn't look like that is happening. We'll also have details of a large car bomb that exploded in Damascus just a short time ago. We are live from neighboring Lebanon in just a minute.

In Afghanistan, at least 40 people are dead after a suicide bomber hit a crowded mosque today. Witnesses say the bomber was wearing a policeman's uniform. Like I said, today starts a major Muslim holiday. The mosque was so packed at the time of the explosion, many people were praying outside. There's no claim of responsibility yet.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to four years in prison today for tax fraud. It's a complicated case that dragged on for years involving Berlusconi's media company and a Swiss bank account. Prosecutors say the company bought the TV broadcasting rights for some 3,000 American films. Well, then they resold those rights at inflated prices, made a bundle, avoiding taxes. Berlusconi, he is expected to appeal. He's not going to serve any time until the appeal is heard. We're going to have more on the developing story in a live report from Rome.

The National Weather Service has a dire warning for the northeast United States. We are talking about right here. Hurricane Sandy could move through the region this weekend bringing widespread damage to Virginia, as well as to Massachusetts and everything in between.

Sandy has killed 21 people in the Caribbean. It brought floods, heavy rains to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. It kicked up powerful waves off of Fort Lauderdale. The storm, it is massive, with a cloud field stretching more than 1,600 miles.

Storm preps already in high gear in New Jersey. People in Atlantic City, they are filling the sandbags, the crews, gathering supplies. Meteorologists say, though, that the storm could merge with a cold system creating what they call a perfect storm. Just like the one that hit the northeast 21 years ago. Severe weather expert Chad Myers following all of this.

And you and I have talked about this. We've talked about it on the show. We talk about it outside.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right.

MALVEAUX: The this is a very big deal. What are we looking at?

MYERS: You know, and you don't expect it to be a big deal in October. You don't expect an October hurricane to be what this has the potential to be. We're talking Monday, if it turns left, then hits the Delmarva, the Chesapeake Bay. Maybe even Tuesday night, if it gets up toward Massachusetts. It just takes longer to get there. It's longer in the water.

But when it's longer in the water, it can also get stronger in the water. So we have that. This is going to be -- this will make winds 200 miles from the eye of 80 to 90 miles per hour. So just -- because you're not in the eye or near the eye, you're going to get damage. There's going to be damage all up and down the northeast coast.

MALVEAUX: So if you're along the East Coast, what do you expect going into the weekend and then to Monday and Tuesday?

MYERS: You know, Saturday and Sunday are your days to prep. Monday is too late. You need to be ready to go by Sunday night. And then people are calling me and asking me, can we get in and out of the northeast? You know, what are planes going to look like Monday and Tuesday?

MALVEAUX: Sure.

MYERS: I don't believe there will be any planes flying. Boston, New York, maybe down to Philadelphia, D.C., all of those planes are going to be grounded somewhere else. They won't want those planes on the ground with winds blowing maybe 80, 90, or 100 miles per hour.

The forecast is still that, to come on shore in that cone from New England, all the way down to North Carolina. I can't tell you where in that cone, yet. The models are still confused. It's not close enough yet. We're still three and a half days away.

MALVEAUX: All right. A lot of prep to do before then.

MYERS: That's right.

MALVEAUX: But we've been warned. So, thank you, Chad. Appreciate it.

MYERS: You're welcome.

MALVEAUX: The presidential election just 11 days away. Candidates, they are shifting their focus back, of course, number one issue for voters, and we're talking about the economy. Next hour, Mitt Romney, he's going to give what his campaign is calling a major speech on the economy. We're going to bring it to you live, along with analysis from our political team. Romney's message so far has focused on his five-point plan. What does that plan include? Well, we are talking about energy independence, providing Americans with the skills to succeed, trade that works for America, cutting the deficit, and championing small businesses. That is Romney's agenda. That is what he's saying.

President Obama also holding and promoting his own plan for the economy. He had some similar issues. We are talking about reviving American manufacturing, energy made in America, growing small businesses, quality education, and cutting the deficit by more than $4 trillion, putting you in charge of your health care and protecting retirement security.

All of those things can they do? We really don't know. Mitt Romney giving his economic speech in Ames, Iowa. That is helping in the next hour. You know, Iowa, one of the battleground states. Six electoral votes. Of the two most recent national polls, one has the president ahead by eight points. The other has the race tied.

Iowa's unemployment rate, 5.2 percent. That's actually lower than the national average. So, Iowa, why now? Joining us to talk about it, CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser.

Paul, talk a little bit about this new report out today that shows the economy grew at a rate of 2 percent in the third quarter, much better than what economists actually expected. Romney put out a statement saying it's disappointing, discouraging. What do we know about today's speech? Is he actually going to be dealing with that?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: I think you may hear some kind of comment on that. You know, as you mentioned, the Romney campaign downplaying that report, whereas the Obama campaign saying that basically this is another sign the economy is recovering from the big recession, but they say more work is need to be done.

As for today's speech, I don't think you're going to hear a lot of new specifics or new ideas from Mitt Romney. Instead, the campaign says what he will do is, again, talk about why this election is a big change election. I think what this speech does, Suzanne, is bring the issue back to what Mitt Romney wants to talk about, the economy. It's his wheelhouse. It's been his mantra for running for president for a year and a half now. He's most comfortable when he's talking about the economy, and that's what this speech is all about.

It's been planned for a while. They've had this kind of in the works for quite some time, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So it wasn't necessarily meant to coincide with the GDP report, is that right?

STEINHAUSER: Probably not. You know, listen, is it a fringe benefit that we're talking about the economy today as he speaks about the economy? Sure. And, remember, next Friday, a week from today, you've got one more big, big number to come out. That is the October unemployment report. It will be the last national jobs report before we have the election, Suzanne. MALVEAUX: And, Paul, something we've heard over the last couple of days, Romney kind of retooling his stump speech. He's focusing more on these stories about families who are struggling in these hard economic times and it really -- it kind of feels like he's taking a page from Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" approach. Do we expect that we're going to hear more of that today and less about the specifics about -- like, tax loopholes and deductions that he would eliminate to really make his plan move forward and work?

STEINHAUSER: Very good point. And we've seen excerpts from the speech and, yes, there are a lot of those kind of personal stories. You'll hear Mitt Romney talk about a lot of people that he's met over the last year and a half on the campaign trail and how they're struggling.

Take a look at these numbers, and it really explains and makes that point you're just talking about. Here's an NBC/"Wall Street Journal" national poll. When it comes to the economy, who has the advantage, which candidate would do a better job? Well, Romney. And he's often led in most polls when he comes to that, by a slight bit (ph).

But go to the next number. Who would do better dealing with the middle class? And you can see here, looking out for the middle class, we've see this in a lot of other polls as well, the president has an advantage, a double digit advantage, and we've seen that for months now. That has not changed.

Here's an excerpt of what Mitt Romney will say in the speech today. "This is not the time to double down on the trickle down government policies that have failed us. It's time for new, bold changes that measure up to the moment that can bring America's families the certainty that the future will be better than the past." Again, you hear Mitt Romney talk about families. You're going to hear a lot about personal people that he has met over the last year and a half, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. We'll be paying attention. Paul, thanks. Good to see you, as always.

President Obama is laying out his own economic plan. His vision for the next four years in a "Rolling Stone" interview. It hits the newsstands today. Well, the man who conducted the interview, he knows a thing or two about presidents. Douglas Brinkley, he's a presidential historian, author and history professor at Rice University in Texas, joining us from New York.

Doug, of course, good to see you here.

"The Rolling Stones" cover has the president, you say, excessively cautious and perhaps a survival trait because at this time really nobody wants to make any kind of off remark to derail their own campaign. This was really the same kind of criticism that he faced when I covered him back in 2008. Why do you think that he is so cautious right now as opposed to giving us a little something different?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN, RICE UNIVERSITY: Well, you know, it's a -- he's very aware of the new media culture where any moment there's -- something's on YouTube or an off the cuff remark gets picked up. So I think he's cautious about that.

I did my interview with him for 45 minutes in the Oval Office and I try to get him on things, on talking a little more about what went wrong in Denver. That was kind of tough to do. But when I switched gears and talked about history, about what he thinks about how historians should look at Obamacare, does he like the term, what would he call his -- all of his policies put together, and he calls it the fair shake, or thinks that that's OK, I was able to make more headway.

MALVEAUX: So you did get him off his talking points a little bit. There was a moment here that caught our attention, this exchange between the president and, of course, "Rolling Stone" executive editor Eric Bates. This was really on the way out of the interview. Bates asked the president -- he says his six-year-old daughter is rooting for him. And you write that the president responds to this saying, "you know, kids have good instincts. They look at the other guy and say, well, that's a bs-er, I can tell." The president actually used the whole phrase there. We can make -- we can certainly make it out what he actually said here. What do you think about the fact that he used that language?

BRINKLEY: Oh, he's -- well, he's -- I think we all use that word. He's very human. And it's sort of part of the Romnesia theme. It's no -- nothing really too new with that, that he doesn't trust Mitt Romney. He's -- he was -- I asked him --

MALVEAUX: But the language is new, Doug. I mean, obviously, the language is pretty tart there.

BRINKLEY: Well --

MALVEAUX: Do you think that was intentional?

BRINKLEY: I don't know because I can't do the "I think." I just know it happened. I mean people make a lot out of it, but I read -- you know, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy used to say that word almost every moment. So did LBJ. I think, if anything, we see a president that seldom uses that. During the BP spill, he used "kick ass," and it created a little bit of a stir. But he seems pretty cautious. In this anecdote, it was kind of an informal moment.

MALVEAUX: I -- I have my own theory on that because, you know, there was a kind of off the mic moment last go around when he called Kanye West a jack blank, and you know the word we are talking about. And it seemed as if he regretted that. I think he was pretty intentional with this. I mean this is something that perhaps speaks to younger voters and the language that they're using or that he's being a little bit more forthcoming about what he means there and that he's very intentional about what he says and when he says it. But 45 minutes in the Oval Office with the president, I imagine there are some things that were revealing about how he's feeling. We've seen him kind of hoarse these last couple days, exhausted. What did he seem like when you sat down with him? BRINKLEY: Well, he really was in a sort of all systems go, in a kind of an unflappable, we're going to win this thing mood. I think he wanted to use the interview to talk about what a second term would look like. I got him to talk about how important Bill Clinton's been as an ally of his and how much he feels that Clinton, particularly in I think the Midwest, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, he's, in many ways, talking about let's get back to the Clinton economy, not a Bush economy.

And mainly I thought the most interesting thing to me was how determined he was to say -- no qualifiers -- that if Mitt Romney becomes president, most likely the effort to undo Roe v. Wade is upon us. Really hitting that kind of hard when you read the interview, that there will be a new Supreme Court justice. It will give it five people that want to undo Roe v. Wade and that women need to wake up.

MALVEAUX: And, Doug, how does he compare to many of the other presidents that you've actually sat down with? Did he seem that he was calm, that he was confident?

BRINKLEY: Well, you know, I've gotten to know the president -- yes, but I've known him a little bit. He's an intellectual, I mean. And when it comes to presidential history, he reads all these books about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, you know, he's a -- he's wonkish in a sense of detail in history.

But right now he's trying to get the fire going in the belly, and I think he used the interview to start setting the stage. He doesn't like the idea that he's not out there campaigning about his next term and what it would look like. In my piece, I try to talk about him as being a progressive fire wall. In many ways, the "yes we can" of '08 is now "no you won't," meaning you will not drill in the arctic, you will not make Medicaid and Medicare into a voucher system, you will not, you know, roll back any aspect of Social Security. On and on that he's trying to get his base out.

And "Rolling Stones" demographics age is, you know, 20's and 30's.

MALVEAUX: Right.

BRINKLEY: And so I think the interview, in some ways, was aimed at that audience. You see him doing MTV, I believe, later today.

MALVEAUX: Right. Tonight, yes.

All right, Douglas, good to see you, as always. Thank you.

BRINKLEY: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: It is something you're only going to see here on CNN. Our very own -- very British Richard Quest setting out on an American journey by train to talk to voters from Chicago to San Francisco.

Plus, his tax fraud trial started six years ago. Well, today, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now sentenced.

And, does this sound like a truce to you? Right? This is a Syrian cease-fire ending almost as soon as it starts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Now, more on the developing story out of Italy, the country's former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, sentenced four years in prison today for tax fraud.

Ben Wedeman is in Rome. And, Ben, we understand that, first of all, Berlusconi is going to file an appeal. Do we think he's going to do any prison time?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At this point, it doesn't appear to be the case. He will appeal. He's got two appeals before the verdict will actually be carried out and, if you look at the past, he's had at least 30 cases that have gone to trial and, in all of those, he has, either been acquitted or through the appeal process or through a change of the laws, he's been able to avoid doing any time, any fines.

In this case, certainly, he's got a while before -- I mean, he's got these two levels of appeals he can go through and, in fact, there's a 2006 law that's aimed at reducing prison populations so that, unless you are up for terrorism, murder, drug charges or involvement with the Mafia, he could have that four-year sentence reduced to one.

And, usually, when you are over 70 in Italy and you have a sentence of less than two years -- 18-months-to-two-years, you probably don't have to serve that sentence taught. So, Mr. Berlusconi probably isn't too worried at the moment that he's going to end up with a striped suit behind bars.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Ben, a lot of people when they think of him, they think of some of the allegations involving women and scandals that he's been allegedly involved in.

Is that how they came to investigate him in the first place? Is that related at all to what we're seeing here with the tax fraud?

WEDEMAN: No, that's a completely different case. This involves his business empire, media set, and a series of deals involving shell companies buying the rights to about 3,000 American movies, all intended really to reduce their tax bill.

That's separate from the case of this at the time 17-year-old Moroccan exotic dancer he's charged in a case. In fact, they've also had a hearing today. He's charged with having paid for sex with a minor. That's a completely different case.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: All right, Ben, do we think he has any future political ambitions or is he basically done?

WEDEMAN: No, in fact, two years ago -- rather, two days ago, he announced that he would not be running for the prime ministry in the upcoming elections and, according to the sentence today, the verdict today, he is barred from holding public office for the next three years.

MALVEAUX: All right.

WEDEMAN: Now, in Italian politics, however, never say never. People can always come back even though he is a young 76-years old.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much. Appreciate it. We're running out of time.

It's supposed to be a few days of peace, right, for the Muslim holiday of Eid? Instead, you've got scenes like this, the aftermath of a car bomb explosion on a Damascus street, that failed Syrian ceasefire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We are just getting details of what witnesses are calling a massive car bomb that exploded just a short time ago in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria.

Well, the images, they are new to CNN. We are working our sources to learn as much as we can, but, remember, CNN has no camera teams, no reporters inside Syria right now. We are not allowed by the government to even enter the country.

But from what we are hearing, several people are dead. Some of them are children. The bomb was in a booby-trapped car that exploded outside a mosque.

We want to get live to Mohammed Jamjoom. He is not in Syria, but as close as we can get in Beirut, Lebanon.

Mohammed, first of all, two things that are happening here when you talk about the violence in Syria, a car bomb that goes off at the mosque, a major religious holiday, and, still, you are not able to get inside of the country.

This was supposed to be a ceasefire. What is going on?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. You know, hopes have been high for this ceasefire to take hold, but expectations have been very, very low the last few days that it actually would take hold in Syria.

Now, let's talk about the last couple of days, what's happened. Yesterday, you saw indications from inside Syria that not everybody was for this ceasefire.

Take a look at this video. These are civilians in an opposition held part of the north part of Syria talking about how they didn't want this ceasefire to take hold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): Ceasefire? What ceasefire are you talking about? We do not want a ceasefire. We want the fall of the regime. This regime kills our people every day.

What ceasefire are you talking about? We do not need the ceasefire and we are not thinking about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): We do not need it because Assad is playing us. He wants to transport ammunition to the military outposts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JAMJOOM: This is a sentiment that's been echoed by some members of the rebel Free Syrian Army forces over the last few days. You've heard many rebels say they don't believe that the Syrian government would ever really adhere to any kind of a ceasefire.

Yet, the Syrian government did say yesterday that they would enter into a ceasefire.

Now, earlier today, it was looking good. Things were relatively peaceful and quiet, but, after that, you started hearing more reports of violence.

To that end, I have some very dramatic video. I want to point out to our viewers, this reportedly shot in Homs hours ago showing explosions going off. You hear what sounds like shelling happening. A man running around screaming about this is what reality of the first day of Eid al-Adha, a time that's supposed to be peaceful, what it's like for the besieged city of Homs.

He is blaming this on government forces and clashes between government forces and rebel Free Syrian Army members, the first of many videos we've today, showing violence, purporting to show violence in the streets across Syria.

A day when a cease-fire was supposed to take effect, we've heard from local coordination committees, opposition groups in Syria that at least 20 people have been killed so far.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: So, Mohammed, it really sounds like there is nobody who really believes that a ceasefire is possible in Syria at this time. Is that fair to say?

JAMJOOM: It's fair to say. More and more people, the people we speak with in Syria, are saying they don't believe this will hold.

One of the problems is you have both the rebels and the regime putting conditions on a ceasefire. The regime yesterday, when they announced there was going to be a ceasefire, said that they have the right to retaliate against any terrorist activity and to defend their borders from terrorists entering the country. The rebels have said that, if they're attacked, they're going to go ahead and they're going to attack back.

So, because of that and because of what's going on, it's just looking increasingly dire. Now, with this car bomb that's gone off in the past couple of hours of Damascus, looking even worse for the ceasefire to really take hold.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: All right, Mohammed Jamjoom, discouraging news out of Syria. Appreciate it.

She was shot in the head because she stood up for her beliefs. The young Pakistani activist is now defying the odds, as well as the Taliban.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Thirteen-year-old Pakistani girl critically injured by Taliban militants does not have significant brain damage. That is good. That is word from Malala Yousufzai's doctors in Birmingham, England.

They say Malala is walking with little help and she appears to remember things that happened before she was shot.

Malala was attacked for promoting a girl's right to education. She was reunited with her family yesterday. She thanks her doctor's in Pakistan and England.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZIAUDDIN YOUSUFZAI, MALALA'S FATHER: The right treatment, the right place at the right time, and I'll say that, of course, an attacker who was -- who could be called the agent of Satan, he attacked, but after that, I found angels and on my side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The attack on Malala has outraged people around the world. It also shed light on the challenges of Pakistani girls that they face in just trying to get an education.

Zubeida Mustafa has spent more than three decades covering issues just like that in Pakistan. She was the first woman to work in the country's mainstream media. Her work has earned her a Lifetime Achievement award from the International Women's Media Foundation and Zubeida Mustafa is joining us from Los Angeles.

First of all, congratulations, really such an honor to be able to even speak with you about what is taking place here.

You actually started a newspaper, "Dawn," back in 1975. For years, you're the only one -- the woman -- only woman in the newsroom. What was that like for you? ZUBEIDA MUSTAFA, JOURNALIST IN PAKISTAN FOR 33 YEARS: Thank you. I think it was really, really great being there.

Of course, in the beginning there was -- I wouldn't say uphill, but it was a challenge to establish myself and to prove myself, but once I had done it, it was quite easygoing because of all the cooperation I received.

And, in some ways, I even found it an advantage being a woman because I could go into areas where a man would not have been allowed.

You know, what Pakistan is. It's a very segregated society and I could enter, say, the refugee camps. I have been to the border areas and I could go and talk to the women there when no one would have talked to them.

It was the men who were doing all the talking. Or even in shanty towns in Karachi itself, I remember before the elections I could go and talk to the women and ask them what they wanted from the leaders.

MALVEAUX: Tell me a little bit about what is happening now? I mean, when you look at this, fast forward from the 1970s, now 2012, and you have this Pakistani girl who is a target for assassination by the Taliban, shooting her in the head because she believes in just rights for girls to have an education.

What do you make of what is taking place in your country?

MUSTAFA: Well, I think Malala has proved what we had been feeling for quite many time, that it was generally being said that the Pakistanis do not want to educate the girls. The parents are conservative and they don't want to take the girls to school, but I think that period has long passed.

Now, people do value education, and even education for girls. So what happened to Malala? There was so much shock and sense of outrage and it, in a way, bridged the barrier of silence where people didn't want to speak about, maybe out of fear because what the Taliban were doing, but now it seems that they've come into the open and there's been so much support for her all over the country.

MALVEAUX: All over the world.

MUSTAFA: And men, as well as women -- yes, that's true.

MALVEAUX: All over the world support for this young girl.

What do you make of the strength of the Taliban in Pakistan, because so many people have come forward to support this little girl. Are they as strong as we think they are here in the United States?

MUSTAFA: Yes. I think that is true.

Actually, with the Taliban, the problem is that they don't have so much support, but they are armed, and if the rest of the population is unarmed, so it gives them a certain kind of power which, in a way, gives the wrong impression as though they are the ones who are really dominating the scene. They are doing it with the help of the weapons.

MALVEAUX: Well, Mustafa, we congratulate you on your work, on your Lifetime Achievement award, and the work that you continue to do inside of Pakistan to bring change there for women and for your society. Thanks again. I appreciate it.

It is an unusual quest. We're talking about a quest from Civil War reenactments to the campus of Brigham Young University.

One of our CNN international reporters find out what Americans really think about the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: For eight days, our Richard Quest traveled from city to city on a train, stopping to hear what Americans think about the elections and the issues. It is called his "American Quest for Answers."

Making a rare stop here in Atlanta, as well. Good to see you in person. I mean, you and I have so much fun from across the pond and, now, you're -- and you're here for how long? A couple of weeks now?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm here for a couple of weeks and I have been on this train, the California Zephyr, which goes from Chicago to San Francisco, and it was -- we started in Chicago, Obama country. We then went to Iowa, swing state, Colorado, swing state.

MALVEAUX: Well, what are your impressions? I mean, so, here you are. You're talking to American folks about the election. What did you learn? And you went to some kind of odd places, right? This Civil War reenactment?

QUEST: We went to a Civil War reenactment, which was incredible in Iowa. I met some very interesting people.

We went to BYU in Utah to meet to see how they viewed what was happening.

MALVEAUX: Romney's alma mater.

QUEST: That's Romney's alma mater. And we went to -- and former Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco showed me around his city.

What I learned is this and I realize it's not a revelation, but America is split, and not only that, it is those small number of undecideds who will decide.

But what are the issues? Why are they so unhappy? What is the core feeling that's going on in this --

MALVEAUX: So what were they telling you? Did they divulge anything as a Brit who's like trying to get the inside ...

QUEST: Yes. MALVEAUX: What did they tell you?

QUEST: Yes, they did. And, next week, you'll find out.

MALVEAUX: Oh, come on. That is such a tease.

QUEST: Oh, coming from you?

MALVEAUX: You are teasing your series.

QUEST: What they told me is basically their deep concern of what's happening in the country and that they ultimately will go with the person that they like, that the feel right about and that's -- this is not the people who are one-side definite, one side, the other side.

These are the people who are looking every single day, hoping for that moment of inspiration for the person they want.

MALVEAUX: Did you meet the so-called undecided folks because we ...

QUEST: Lots of them.

MALVEAUX: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but we think -- there's a theory that I have. Maybe they just need a little love, a little attention here.

Are they really undecided? Are they saying they really don't know who to vote for, 11 days out?

QUEST: What is fascinating is which way they go. And I'll tell you that what I mean by that is one person said research shows they go to the incumbent. And within five minutes, somebody else told me that the research shows that they go to the challenger.

And, as you'll see in my reports next week -- and throughout all of this, we return to the California Zephyr where we sleep on board, we eat, we look at the vistas of the Rockies.

MALVEAUX: Is there anything that was, like, really different, your impression just traveling the country here in the United States, as opposed to, you know, the U.K.?

QUEST: Always how friendly, how welcoming, how charming people are, particularly when you lock them all up on a train for 48 hours or for eight days and you feed them food and alcohol. Suddenly, people talk.

MALVEAUX: They really don't have a choice.

QUEST: It's a great train. Have you ever done it?

MALVEAUX: I've done it on the East Coast not the West Coast.

QUEST: It was comfortable.

MALVEAUX: But you know, at college, I used to go from, you know, D.C. up to Boston, so I've been on a train.

QUEST: There's too many jokes there. There's just -- there's just ...

MALVEAUX: We're going to save them for Monday because we'll have all that next week.

Richard, good to see you, as always.

Richard's trip across the U.S. by train might not be your cup of tea, but looking for something more meaty? Well, we have that for you.

Ahead, hotels abroad offering rest, relaxation, lots of food.

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MALVEAUX: All right, if you're going abroad this fall, you might find that -- good food, actually, on the agenda, but what about if you actually planned something a travel and leisure experts calls a "culinary get-away?"

Nilou Motamed is joining us from New York and, Nilou, we all love food, love eating, a great get-away. What is a culinary get-away? How's that different than just pigging out on vacation?

NILOU MOTAMED, "TRAVEL+LEISURE" MAGAZINE: Well, everyone to eat really well when they travel, but this is a place that has a gorgeous setting and then you really feel like you're getting a little bit of a cultural experience, as well.

So, it's an immersion experience in every way, including what you put in your mouth.

MALVEAUX: So, tell us a little bit about these places that you can go.

MOTAMED: Well, everyone loves Italy and a great place to go is Southern Italy. They have so much local bounty.

I love the Palazzo Margherita there because Francis Ford Coppola created this hotel. It's nine rooms. It used to be his own personal estate. Actually, his daughter got heard here and, if you want to learn to cook, classic Italian food, why not go to Italy, so you can learn to make the best pastas, you can go to local argiturismos, or farms, to see the artismal (ph) products that are being made right there?

And, when you are tired of that all, you go right to his incredible screening room. There are over 300 Italian movies that he has curated himself.

A little bit further afield, I would recommend going to Vietnam. If you love Asian food and you have never have Vietnamese food, you are in for an absolute treat. And a great place stay there is the Metropole.

They have a cooking class which I love because you can go right to the market and experience what it is to basically food shop with the locals and then come back and do your hands-on cooking and then basically what you cook is what you have for lunch.

MALVEAUX: Really? Wow. So if you're somebody like me who doesn't really cook or knows how to cook, could you actually -- do you find this enjoyable? I mean, will they take people like me who don't cook at all?

MOTAMED: They will take -- even you, Suzanne, can go. And I think actually closer to home in British Columbia, there's a great property called Sook (ph) Harbor House. So just because it's a culinary retreat doesn't mean you have to cook. They have things like mushroom foraging. You can even hunt -- fish or salmon or you can just walk around their incredible organic gardens and pick your own herbs. Maybe for even a cocktail, so you don't even have to get your hands that dirty.

MALVEAUX: It looks beautiful. We're just looking at these pictures here. It looks absolutely amazing.

MOTAMED: Every single one of these properties is stunning. And whether you know how to cook or just love to eat, these are great places to go.

MALVEAUX: And is it affordable for most folks? Or how do you -- And how long should you stay?

MOTAMED: You know, I love really settling into a place. So I think three or four days at any destination is a great idea. And a couple of those hotels, actually the last two, are around $200 a night. So I think it's actually very, very accessible.

MALVEAUX: That's great. That's amazing, really. I've learned something really. That's incredible. I'm going to try that. Give it a try.

MOTAMED: We might get you cooking after all.

MALVEAUX: OK. No peanut butter and jelly. All right. Thanks, Nilou. Good to see you.

MOTAMED: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Eleven days and counting till the election. And just in a few minutes, Mitt Romney's going to take the stage for what his team is calling a major economic speech. Of course, you're going to watch it here live on CNN. Our political team is going to join us for a preview.

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MALVEAUX: The latest on Hurricane Sandy. Want to bring in our Chad Myers to talk about where this hurricane is head, how bad we think it's going to be.

And what is our timetable in terms of prepping for this thing? It's going to be big, yes?

MYERS: It is going to be big. And I don't -- and we're still three days out, so I try to be cautious on the terminology that I use, to not get people panicked.

This is going to be a storm that knocks down a million trees, puts power out to millions of people. It's going to take a long time to get all that power back on

Although it's only a category one storm, we're going to have a very large high pressure system to the west. And this matters because as the low moves up and encounters the high, the high and the low, as they're next to each other, make tremendous winds, 80 mile per hour, 100 mile per hour winds, in the big cities. I don't know all of them yet. Whether it's Boston or D.C., that's kind of the window between where it could be. But we will have winds 80 miles per hour. And that's -- this isn't a good number. Probably 150 miles from the center of the eye. So we're not worried about just the eye itself.

Look how tightly packed those lines are. The circle is the low in the ocean. The other thing over by Michigan, that's the high. The winds, as they get closer together, as those lines get back together, the winds will be from Maine all the way to Maryland. In fact, Maryland has just issued a state of emergency.

MALVEAUX: So when do we expect all of this to happen?

MYERS: If the storm turns and moves to Maryland, D.C., Virginia, that would happen Monday night. If the storm heads out to sea for a little bit and then comes in to Rhode Island, Massachusetts, maybe Long Island, that would be Tuesday night, because it would take longer to get there.

MALVEAUX: And so we are looking at prep time of how long?

MYERS: I think you need to be done with your preps by Sunday. You need to be ready to go. You need to be ready -- and we'll know as it gets closer, probably be ready to camp in your house for five days without power. It may take that long. If we get millions of people without power, those lines don't go back up all at one time. The crews have to be in. They assess the damage. It's going to take a long time.

Remember, the leaves are on the trees. At least some of them. And if it snows -- and that could happen in Pennsylvania, parts of Ohio, West Virginia, some of those trees are going to come down because of the snow. Looking at some of the computer models, putting two feet of snow down in parts of West Virginia.

So this is a big event. This is the biggest storm that we have seen in our lifetime.

MALVEAUX: Wow. In our lifetime?

MYERS: Absolutely. I think so.

MALVEAUX: OK. All right. Well, that's -- that's very serious and, obviously, we're going to be paying attention to all the details that you have as soon as you have them.

Thank you, Chad. Appreciate it. MYERS: Thanks. You're welcome. Bye.

MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney giving what he is calling, and his campaign calling, a major speech on the economy. That is happening at the top of the hour. Our team standing by to help break all this down. Candy Crowley, she's in Washington. Jim Acosta, he's with the Romney campaign in Ames, Iowa. Ali Velshi, he's on the road in Philadelphia.

Romney's message so far, of course, focusing on the economy. And that is his five-point plan. This is what it includes, he says, energy independence, providing Americans with the skills to succeed, trade that works for America, cutting the deficit, and championing small businesses.

Well, President Obama, he also has a plan that he has been promoting for the economy. It's similar issues we're talking about, reviving American manufacturing, energy made in America, growing small businesses, quality education, cutting the deficit by more than $4 trillion, putting you in charge of your health care and protecting retirement security. So we're going to talk with our political team up next about what all of this means.

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MALVEAUX: This hour we're focusing on politics and the economy. We want to get right to it. The number one issue for voters, of course, front and center again, just 11 days until the presidential election. You're looking at live pictures. This is from Ames, Iowa. This is where Mitt Romney, he's going to be speaking any minute now. His campaign calling this a major speech on the economy. We're going to bring you his remarks, as well as insights and analysis from our political team.

So joining us with a little preview, a post-game analysis of the Romney speech, Candy Crowley out of Washington, Ali Velshi on the road in Philadelphia.

Candy, first of all, want to start off with you here.

We've gotten some excerpts here. We don't expect any new details out of this economic plan, this speech. They're calling it a major announcement. Do we think this is simply kind of jumping up and down, repackaging much of the same to try to get our attention, or do we think there might be a little bit more to this? Some more substance?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, we'll see. But it is my experience in the last, what is it, 10 plus days before an election, no candidate ever wants to throw something new in the mix unless they're way behind. When you have two candidates in a dead head, you will find that neither one of them wants to make a mistake.

What they both know and what you're seeing is that this is now about turnout. And it's not just about turnout on Election Day. It's about turnout in all those states that have early voting. So you see the president out doing that 48-hour tour and, you know, bringing out Bill Clinton next week. You see Romney making major speeches. To me, this needs to be seen more through the prism of getting folks excited to go vote than through the prism of, hey, we're about to get some real big policy notifications here.

MALVEAUX: Let's talk a little bit about how folks are feeling about the economy. The two latest polls here, very interesting. Both candidates trying to convince voters that they've got a better take on what should be done here. You've got the NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll here showing that more people are confident Romney can best handle the economy overall, 46 percent to President Obama's 40 percent. But you've got this poll over here from NBC/"Wall Street Journal" saying that more people believe that the president would do a better job looking out specifically for the middle class, 52 percent to 36 percent for Romney. What do you think, Candy, actually carries more weight?

CROWLEY: We've always thought the question cares about people like me or understands people like me to carry a lot of weight. And that's closest to the second question. In a -- but in an economy where people think, what are we going to do, it is huge for Mitt Romney to have regained because that's where he was kind of a while back. And I think you can attribute this to the first debate. People looked at him and thought, the guy presents a plan, he knows what he's talking about, and I think it sort of solidified some of those who were worried about the former governor. So I think that's a good number for him.

But, you know, cares about people like me tends to be one of those poll drivers that we see, you know, afterward. And you say, well, I think he gets my life, it's important. It's important for a voter to think, when I cast my vote, this is a man who understands what I'm facing. It's certainly not, you know, the definitive thing, but it is generally pollsters look at right track, wrong track, that question, and that cares about people or understands people like me is kind of fairly important numbers that shape how people vote.

But we're looking at, what? We're looking at very close, sort of a dead heat nationwide. And we're looking at very close races in those battlegrounds. So, clearly, there is -- there is still doubt about the economy and the idea that Mitt Romney, at this point, is leading the president and can best handle the economy, is certainly a huge plus for the team.

MALVEAUX: All right, Candy, thank you.