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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

New Hampshire Primary Tomorrow; Kay Criticizes U.S. Intelligence Community; Lionel Tate Released

Aired January 26, 2004 - 22:00   ET

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

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


AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening, everyone. We are in Atlanta tonight. And for those of you in our audience who are Republicans, we apologize. The Democrats own the night.
Some other year, it will be the other way around. But tonight, it is their time, the Democrats time. Tomorrow the political landscape will be more clear. New Hampshire doesn't by any stretch pick the nominee, and tomorrow's winner cannot start writing an acceptance speech for the convention this summer.

But who wins matters. As John Kerry found in Iowa, just winning one of these could boost your prospects down the road. But there are also signs tonight that Dean's slide has hit bottom, and bounced back. There are signs that John Edwards is still a player as things prepare to move south.

And there are also troubling signs for candidates Lieberman and Clark, who have essentially bet the farm on New Hampshire. Politics and lots of it. Top the program tonight. And of course begin "The Whip." First to New Hampshire with just a couple of hours to go before the voting really does begin. CNN's Candy Crowley there to start it off, Candy, headlines.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, less than 24 hours until the next step in a campaign that has taken a lot of turns. But has never once veered from its central theme. A war in a place very far away -- Aaron.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. To Washington next. Provocative charges about weapons of mass destruction from the man once charged with finding them. CNN's David Ensor has been working on this. David, the headline from you tonight?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, no sooner was David Kay off the CIA payroll, and he began to criticize U.S. intelligence from mistakes he thinks were made about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the war. He predicts that none will be found. He says that Iraqi scientists were lying even to Saddam Hussein.

BROWN: David, thank you.

South Carolina now. Just one of many states hit by nasty winter storms tonight. Gary Tuchman on the story. Gary, a headline?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, yes, it's winter, so we expect winter weather. But some very severe conditions have affected a large portion of the country. Aaron?

BROWN: Gary, thank you.

And finally, Fort Lauderdale Florida, where 16-year-old Lionel Tate walked out of jail today. Free for the first time in three years. Susan Candiotti has been covering this for most of that time. Susan, a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron. Yes, Lionel Tate is home at this hour under house arrest, but he will be back in court later this week to plead guilty for murdering 6-year- old Tiffany Eunick. It is still a controversial case.

BROWN: Susan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly. Also, coming up on this Monday night from Atlanta, we'll go back to mars. No, you do not need your little 3-D glasses for this one. But there are some cool pictures, and we'll show them to you tonight.

We'll also talk tonight with Governor Howard Dean on the eve of the first big primary. See how he feels about the campaign in it's final hours. And fresh from a weekend on the slopes, the rooster stops by to drop off your morning papers for Tuesday. All that and more in the hour ahead.

We of course begin in New Hampshire, where the candidates spent another bitterly cold day shaking hands and making speeches. And giving interviews. Each again and again saying that he is the one who can beat George W. Bush. The candidates were on the stump. The pollsters on the phone. And the reporters trying to keep up with both. We begin tonight with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): Iowa changed the dynamics, Kerry is up now. Dean is down. Still, the struggle in New Hampshire is ending where it began a year ago. Over a war 5,800 miles away.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Where was John Kerry when George Bush was giving out this misinformation about Saddam had something to do with al Qaeda? He was voting in favor of the war, and it turned out all the reasons that the president gave us were not true. Foreign policy expertise depends on patience and judgment. I question Senator Kerry's judgment.

CROWLEY: Kerry's campaign called Dean's words a last desperate attack. But in the townhalls, he still gets asked.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If any of you in New Hampshire believe that with my record, I would have taken the authority that we were given in order to get the inspectors in and have a legitimate threat of war, so go to war as a last resort, if you think I would have gone to war the way George Bush did, don't vote for me.

CROWLEY: Down the totem pole, Joe Lieberman, the unapologetic pro-war candidate struggles for relevance in a primary season dominated by the anti-war wing of his party.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The independents will play a critical role for me tomorrow. I'm counting on...

CROWLEY: Save for Lieberman, they're all pretty much anti-war now, or at least anti-post war. They have found ways to walk away from their votes. The latest is a report that an intelligence failure led to the erroneous conclusion that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why is there a discrepancy? Did somebody intentionally mislead? And if so, they need to be held accountable.

CROWLEY: One way or another, the war is there. It explains the candidacy of the general who's title and anti-war rhetoric seemed like a winning combo for Democrats. But his star is fading now, and he campaigns now as just an ordinary guy.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not part of the problems in Washington. I've never taken money from lobbyists. I've never cut a deal. I have never run for votes.

CROWLEY: There are other issues. In fact voters say they care most about the economy. But in the end, this is the campaign that the war shaped.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: It may not matter now who was for, or who was against the war. Because at the moment, they are all pretty much on the same side of the line -- Aaron.

BROWN: Stick around. We'll talk some more in a minute. But as people will hear later, I asked Howard Dean this afternoon that very question. If his candidacy was all about the war, or surrounding the war. We'll get to that later in the program.

Analysts are predicting a record turnout in New Hampshire tomorrow. How the cold weather will affect things remains unknown, because it is New Hampshire, and they are not exactly -- cold doesn't normally scare them off. New Hampshire as historically rewarded outsiders and independents at the ballot box. Like so many calculations in politics, it is not a simple one. Times change. Voters change. And New Hampshire itself has changed a lot in recent years. Here is CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel quite sure that I'm going to be nominated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The pattern was set from the very beginning. Back in 1952 when the New Hampshire primary was new, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of organized crime and Democratic Party bosses challenged President Harry Truman in the New Hampshire primary and won.

And ever since, the outsider, the reformer, the Democrat at odds with his own party has managed an impressive showing, if not outright victory in New Hampshire. Eugene McCarthy in '68. George McGovern in '72. Gary Hart in '84. Paul Tsongas in '92. Bill Bradley in 2000.

DANTE SCALA, ST. ANSELM COLLEGE: There is a block of voters in New Hampshire every four years, who are looking, even hungering for somebody who will carry the mantel of reform and change for the Democratic Party.

GREENFIELD: Dante Scala teaches politics at St. Anselm College, and wrote the book literally, about New Hampshire Democrats. These reform voters, he says, are not your father's Democrats.

SCALA: They pick issues that become signature issues that are off the beaten track. Off the traditional bread and butter issues of jobs, and economic security, that characterize traditional Democratic candidates.

GREENFIELD: What this means says Scala, is that there are broadly speaking, two kinds of New Hampshire Democrats. Call them regulars versus reformers. Or working class versus elitist. Or the wine track versus the beer track.

You will find the blue collar Democrats in the city of Manchester. To the southwest in Cheshire County. Up north in Berlin, in what is left of that region's industrial base. Reformers by contrast are strong in the so-called collar towns around Manchester. Bedford, for example. In some of the border towns by the Massachusetts border. And in Hanover, home of dog-mitten (ph). And parts of Durham, home of the state university.

This division dramatically played out four years ago as you can see in this spacialogic (ph) map. Bill Bradley won the collar towns, the border towns, and the college communities shown in gold. But Al Gore won his narrow victory by carrying the blue-collar townships of Manchester, shown in blue.

With each primary the working class share, the vote shrinks. This should be great news for Howard Dean. The classic reform style candidate who shot to Prominence by challenging the Washington Democrats for their votes on the Iraq war. And in fact, Dean had a 30-point plus lead when the New Year began.

But on the eve of the primary, it appears that electability rather than any classic reform issue is dominating. It is thus John Kerry, who commands the lead in the polls and with it, the possibility of winning both the wine track and the beer track wings of the party. That could have real significance down the primary road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there's a candidate out there who can carry Manchester, and a majority of the collar towns surrounding Manchester, you might be looking at the next Democratic presidential nominee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Now, even if John Kerry does manage to win with a broad based vote, this wine track/beer track divide could still matter in the inevitable who wins the better than expectations prize? The reformed message might still work for Howard Dean. The popular small town boy themes of John Edwards seem right for the blue collars.

So does Wes Clark's military background. And Joe Lieberman beckons to independents, which is one reason why one of the questions we'll be trying very hard to answer tomorrow night is, where are the votes coming from? Aaron?

BROWN: Jeff, a lot of pieces in this puzzle to consider. Our troops on the ground have been freezing much of the weekend. But they're warm and inside and have some time to talk, so we'll go back to Jeff and Candy. And we'll be joined as well by Bill Schneider, our Senior Political Analyst. It's good to have you all here with us tonight.

Bill, let me start. Briefly, what are the latest polls saying? How consistent are they?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well the latest polls saying Kerry's ahead. He's ahead by 3 or 11 or 13 or 18 or 20 or 21. But he's ahead in the polls. We don't know how close it's going to be. And that makes a difference, because Kerry is expected to win, but if he wins by a very narrow margin, as some of these polls suggest, it'll be an unimpressive win and he won't get bounce out of it.

And Howard Dean, if, if, if he comes in second, can say he was vindicated because he did, as we say, better than expected.

BROWN: Jeff, you've been in the state all week. What's the most important moment you saw this week?

GREENFIELD: Wow. I guess the most important moments that I saw was trying -- when I could wedge myself in between the 5,000 other members of the press, trying to watch Howard Dean. And there were really two Howard Deans that I saw.

One was a kind of -- a guy working on not robotic but kind of working in a very formulaic way, giving the same speech all the time, with body language that did not necessarily suggest enthusiasm. But I also saw a Howard Dean who was campaigning with his wife, who seemed relaxed when she was around.

Who brought her out on stage in the last minute or two, and as we just saw in Candy's piece, has decided to return to the girl that brung him, or the guy that brung him. The theme that the other candidates, in this case John Kerry were wrong on the war. And, to me, that's what I was most watching.

BROWN: And Candy, you were in Iowa and now in New Hampshire. How has either the message or the tone of the campaign generally been different in New Hampshire than it was in Iowa?

CROWLEY: Up until today, I thought it was a less aggressive tone on the part of all the campaigns. Today, it did seem to take a turn. With Howard Dean and then, with John Kerry responding. That sort of last minute pushing and shoving back and forth. But until up until now, it's been a pretty -- everybody got back on target. Everybody was minding their P's and Q's. And they were kind of running their separate ships in the night. Today they collided.

BROWN: Bill, does everybody in the bottom tier, what we believe the bottom tier is going to be, have enough money to keep competing for another week or so?

SCHNEIDER: Well, Wesley Clark says -- I asked him. I asked his people, does he have enough money to go on? They said he can go on probably to Wisconsin. Because he's raised a lot of money. I don't think Dennis Kucinich or Joe Lieberman are going to be able do that really.

Look after the top three. Numbers 4, five, and six are going to have to think real hard about whether they continuing that race. Al Sharpton is a special case because he has a base in South Carolina.

Wesley Clark's probably got the biggest question because; I believe if Wesley Clark had run in Iowa, he might have been John Kerry. He might have won Iowa, because he looks electable. His problem is, he competes with Kerry on electability. He competes with Dean as the outsider. He competes with Edwards as the southerner. He competes with Lieberman as the guy who can attract Republicans.

So people who are looking for those qualities have somebody else to vote for. Clark is trying to argue I'm all those things. I'm the whole package. But it is not getting through.

GREENFIELD: Aaron, can I make a brief point on that?

BROWN: Please.

GREENFIELD: I thought this is has been a terrible week for Wesley Clark. I think that, for the guy who was moving up and challenging Dean, it wasn't just that John Kerry became the surprise foe. There are a lot of people; I want to be very blunt about this. People who are impressed with him on his resume and his first entrance who were saying this is not ready for prime time player.

Whether it was the debate the other night, whether it was his appearance on "Meet the Press", whether it was his apparent inability to ever say he was wrong. Whether it was his kind of almost (UNINTELLIGIBLE) return to the fact that I'm the only guy who didn't go to Yale, and then he said I'm the only guy that worked my way through college. Well you don't work your way through college at West Point.

And John Edwards did, he has just stepped on his message -- I'll put that as polite as possible -- over and over again. And quite apart from the money, which I think he have to go on for a while, the assessment of that campaign is if he comes in fourth or fifth, is he ready to go on?

BROWN: Candy, is the John Kerry who has campaigned, who seemed in the last days of Iowa to find a little more comfort out there to find his voice. Did he sustain that throughout? Or did he grow progressively more cautious as Election Day grew closer?

CROWLEY: I actually think they were all pretty cautious in the early days of the New Hampshire post Iowa. Nothing is more relaxing than success. I think John Kerry came out. I mean, everybody was surprised. He had everything going for him. He was getting a second look.

Dean was in this free fall. And that's a pretty good place to be so yes; he was much more relaxed than we had seen him in months prior when he was really battling, for his political career. And it does relax one when one has that kind of success.

SCHNEIDER: Aaron, if I can mention something. The big question for John Kerry, is if he does win tomorrow, even by a convincing margin, where does he go from here? You have a bunch of primaries next week. And I've talked to operatives in those states, and they say there isn't much of a John Kerry operation in South Carolina.

Or even in Arizona or Missouri. There's something going on there, and he does have this momentum if he wins here and he can hope that that delivers those states for him. But he doesn't have much on the ground and he has to prove that he can compete all across the country. Because the take on him from people like John Edwards is, he's not really a national candidate. He has got to prove that.

BROWN: Jeff, just pick up on that then. At one level, the obvious answer to me seems to be, he goes to Missouri, there's a lot of delegates at stake there. Does he need to go to South Carolina, and go (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with John Edwards down there?

GREENFIELD: Well, I don't see how he avoids South Carolina because as Bill said, if the rap on this guy is south of the Mason Dixon line, he's about as popular as General Grant. He's going to have to say no.

He doesn't have to win in South Carolina. And the Kerry people to their credit, when John Kerry was at the absolute bottom, I talked to one of their guys, just when they decided to make Iowa the place, he said remember, this is about delegates. At that point, his thing was we don't have to win anywhere early. They've obviously changed that.

So I think he has to show. There are three key states next week. No offense to the others, there is Arizona, South Carolina, and Missouri, the biggest prize. If Kerry goes there and that's what he has to do.

BROWN: We'll be watching all of you tomorrow. Have a good night. Thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you.

Later on the program, we'll talk with Howard Dean about how he sees the campaign. Just a night before the primary. Up next though, nasty weather across much of the country. Already responsible for more than 20 deaths, and it's just getting started in parts of the Northeast.

We'll also look at the latest spectacular photos from Mars, now that NASA has a second rover in place. All of this from Atlanta tonight, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Seven days to go, and doesn't look especially good for the ground hog. Winter storms are making life miserable, and travel treacherous from the plains all the way on east. It is winter of course, but we should expect snow and cold, but not this much. Meteorologists are calling this blast of frigid weather unusual. We'll call it deadly, too. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They were fishing on iced over Lake Erie in North Central Ohio. But then high winds cracked the ice. Fourteen men were stranded on ice chunks, until they were rescued by the cost guard.

They were luckier than some others. A complex series of winter storms from the plains, to the East Coast, from the Great Lakes to Dixie, has left at least 25 people dead. In Omaha Nebraska, four people including children were killed when their car slid into a truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snow and ice on the roads and had an individual lose control.

TUCHMAN: Pittsburgh has also been hit hard by the snow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need four wheel for this. This is really bad.

TUCHMAN: I other places, ice and freezing rain are the problems. Like the Carolinas and Georgia. Where firefighters brave the cold to fight a fire caused when a tanker slid off a highway that in essence became a skating rink.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a man who got out of his vehicle after an accident at a bridge had a very close call. Another driver slammed into pickup truck almost knocking him off the bridge. He was not seriously hurt.

In the nation's capital, snowplows cleared the streets while skiers snowplowed near the Washington monument. In Philadelphia, the plows and salt trucks tried to keep up with the snow and ice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a late start, so the roads have been plowed a little bit. Ice a little dangerous in spots.

TUCHMAN: Dangerous in Missouri too, where 18-wheelers were sliding off roadways choked with snow and accidents. Hundreds of flights were canceled at the nation's airports. Tens of thousands of people were without power.

The weather even caused President Bush to change the plans. After returning from a visit to Arkansas, his helicopter trip from Andrew's Air force Base to the White House was scrapped for a snowy motorcade.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Here in the state of South Carolina alone, six people have died in icy highways over the last 24 hours. Tens of thousands of customers in this state are still without power. And many schools and businesses will be closed tomorrow. But the weather here is expected to improve tomorrow. That is not the case in parts of the Midwest and the Northeast where more bad weather is on the way. Aaron.

BROWN: Gary, thank you. On to mars. Where the weather is mysterious. "Spirit" appears to be on the mend and "Opportunity" has arrived. Just in time perhaps. On the opposite side of the planet from its ailing twin. The second rover has beamed back it's first pictures, and what a spectacular view it is. Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Greetings from mars where "Opportunity" has cratered. The six foot deep, 60-foot wide depression is ringed by ringed by exposed bedrock, or outcropping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outcropping, we're seeing outcrops. This is like a holy grail for a geologist to be able to see these incredible rocks that were -- are in their native habitat. And we are going to explore them with the rover.

O'BRIEN: For scientists, outcrop are more interesting than loose rocks because you know where they came from. The minerals found here will tell a very compelling story of this place. And may offer clues about how Mars likely went from warm and wet to brutally cold and dry. The soil may do the same. The team believes it is laced with (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a mineral that is born in the presence of water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rocks are distinctly brighter. We're don't know what they're made of yet. And we're itching to get over there and find out.

O'BRIEN: They are also itching to figure out what went wrong with "Opportunity's" twin on the other side of Mars last week. Engineers using a model rover here on earth tested one theory, that "Spirit's" memory was swamped by too many old files.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We actually went ahead and caused the problem to happen and looked at the results of causing that problem to happen and it looked very similar to the problem we're seeing on "Spirit." O'BRIEN (on camera): That isn't the final word on "Spirit's" woes, but it's probably pretty close. The engineering team is deleting old computer files as quickly as it can. With "Spirit" unburdened by a clogged computer, there's every reason to believe it will be off to the races no worse for the wear in fairly short order.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Pasadena California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Before we go to break, some other stories making news around the country starting with a death penalty case. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld executing people younger than 18 at the time of their crimes. Today, the justices agreed to revisit that question. The case involves a man who committed a murder in a robbery when he was 17. His death sentence overturned last year by the Supreme Court in Missouri.

U.S. Supreme Court justices turned down an appeal today from Sammy the Bull, a.k.a. -- Gravano, Sammy the Bull Gravano. The former Mafia hitman who is currently serving a 20-year sentence and trying to reclaim more than $380,000 in royalties from a book about his life. An Arizona court ruled the prosecutors were correct in seizing his money.

And after 25 years with the program "20/20," and an illustrious career, Barbara Walters is stepping down from the news bank scene. She said she'd leaving in September, earlier than many expected. She wants to have more flexibility in her life. Miss Walter's is in her 70s, and will be active in the news division according to ABC.

Next up on NEWSNIGHT, the weapons of mass destruction, and the question of who, if anyone takes the blame if none are found in Iraq. From Atlanta, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The Democratic scramble has provided one positive for the current inhabitants of 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's helped mute a bit this story. A story that must make the White House squirm at least a bit.

The man whose job it was until Friday to find the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The weapons that were the principle, though not the only reason to launch a war, is telling most anyone who will listen there are no WMDs the found in Iraq, because they weren't there when the war began.

For some, this is a political story. David Kay knows better. The man who sought these deadly weapons sees this as a failure of national intelligence. Something worrisome no matter your politics or parties. Here's CNN's David Ensor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): Since leaving the job, weapons inspector David Kay has been talking. Blaming the CIA, his employers until Friday, not the White House, for getting it wrong on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

DAVID KAY, FORMER CIA WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Clearly, the intelligence that we went to war on was inaccurate. Wrong. We need to understand why that was. I think if anyone was abused by the intelligence, it was the President of the United States, other than the other way around.

ENSOR: Administration officials liked that last comment and they looked Kay's statement that Baghdad was actively working to produce a biological weapon using the poison ricin right up until the American invasion.

But his statement that he now believes no stockpiles of weapons existed in Iraq before the war has put the administration on the defensive.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, the former dictator sits in captivity. He can no longer harbor or support terrorists.

ENSOR: Noticeably absence from the vice president's speech was the presumption he expressed only last week that weapons would be found in Iraq. And the president's spokesman, too, is no longer insisting that weapons will be found.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats saw Kay's statements as another reason the Intelligence Committees should look into what went wrong at the CIA and at the White House.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: We simply cannot afford to ignore what happened, why it happened, and how we can prevent it from happening again.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: The administration, I think we are now learning, selectively picked that intelligence which supported its point of view.

ENSOR: Senior administration officials said it will be up to George Tenet to provide answers if no weapons are found. The director of central intelligence is due on Capitol Hill for hearings in February and March.

Kay is saying one reason U.S. intelligence may have gotten it wrong on WMD is that Iraqi scientists were running fake programs, fooling even their leader.

KAY: They describe an Iraq that was really spinning into a vortex of corruption from the very top, in which people were lying to Saddam, lying to each other for money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: Frustrated U.S. intelligence officials note that Kay says he quit his CIA job because he didn't have enough people. And yet now he says there's no point in looking because there's nothing to find. As one official put it, Kay can't have it both ways -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, in the intelligence community, as best you can assess this, is there a recognition, is there a belief that there are no weapons and there were no weapons or are the intelligence folks not ready to go that far?

ENSOR: It's a mixed picture.

There are some who now believe that. But I've talked to a number of people who say they still think there may be weapons of mass destruction found, most likely in small numbers and chemical shells, probably not enough to be effective on the battlefield. So, in a way, they're conceding that there were not the kinds of weapons of mass destruction supplies that President Bush supposedly went to war about.

So it's a mixed picture, but people are beginning to believe what you heard David Kay say.

BROWN: David Ensor, thank you -- David Ensor in Washington tonight.

Before we go to our next break, a quick look some at the top stories that made news around the world today.

Baghdad first. Weapons of mass destruction or not, the city remains a dangerous place. Today, a rocket struck within the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area controlled by the U.S.-led coalition. Military officials say no one was injured.

Israel. In the first step of a proposed prisoner swap, Israeli soldiers today began digging up the graves of 59 Hezbollah members. The remains are expected to be turned over to the Lebanese-based militia on Thursday. In exchange, Hezbollah will hand over one Israeli prisoner of war, or prisoner, a businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

And finally, the government of Thailand today confirmed the country's first death from bird flu. This fast-spreading disease has already claimed the lives of six Vietnamese. And outbreaks have been reported in India and in Pakistan as well.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll talk with former Governor Howard Dean, Democratic presidential hopeful, as we head into the New Hampshire primary tomorrow.

Up next, the story of Lionel Tate, sent to prison for life without parole, a killing that occurred when he was 12. But he's out of jail tonight.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I'm not saying anything about that Macintosh story.

Second chances don't happen every day. And for many, they never happen at all. But today in Florida, just a few days before his 17th birthday, Lionel Tate got his second chance, a chance to start again. And it came from the same judge who sent him away to prison for life without parole when he was just 14.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surrounded by supporters, including Black Cops Against Police Brutality and the Nation of Islam, Lionel Tate walked out of the jail free on bond. His supporters say, a party awaits him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Lionel!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lionel.

CANDIOTTI: After spending three years in juvenile prison for killing Tiffany Eunick, his conviction was thrown out on a technicality, the state deciding against retrying the politically charged case. For now, Lionel's lawyers not allowing him to talk.

RICHARD ROSENBAUM, ATTORNEY FOR TATE: I cannot let him speak until I get him back in his mother's arms for sure and for good. Those of you that know me know that we've taken a serious vow to get Lionel out of jail. And until our dolphin swims to freedom, we cannot let him say a word.

CANDIOTTI: It is stunning to see how much Tate changed physically in his three years behind bars. No longer a pudgy first- degree murder defendant at age 12, Lionel Tate is now days away from turning 17 and pleading guilty to murdering Tiffany Eunick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here on the matter of the State of Florida vs. Lionel Tate.

CANDIOTTI: This hearing formality, freeing Lionel on bond. He'll be back Thursday to accept a second-degree murder plea.

Watching at a distance, his mother and his victim's mother. Her daughter Tiffany suffered more than 30 injuries, including a fractured skull. She agreed to Lionel's plea deal. As a victim, she had a right to weigh in. It was an offer he turned down before trial, in part because Lionel's mother insisted Tiffany's death was an accident, and still does, which does not sit well with the victim's mother.

DEWEESE EUNICK-PAUL, MOTHER OF TIFFANY EUNICK: But I do know that it makes me sick, very sick, for you to know that your -- your child brutally murdered someone and you can stand up there as a mother to say that it was an accident.

CANDIOTTI: Lionel's lawyers say his mother has apologized in private.

KATHLEEN GROSSETT-TATE, MOTHER OF TATE: And I just want to thank all the people that prayed for our family and for Tiffany's family. And just continue to pray for us, because we're going to need it. This is a new chapter in our lives. And we're just going to go on forward.

CANDIOTTI: Tate goes home under house arrest for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And he, tonight, is wearing an electronic monitor, the same one he'll be wearing after his formal sentencing on Thursday. He'll be serving one year of house arrest, 10 years of probation, community service and counseling.

In other words, he'll be getting a second chance, something his victim's mother reminds of Lionel of face to face in court on Thursday -- Aaron.

BROWN: Does he go to school?

CANDIOTTI: He will be going to school, probably one of these so- called alternative schools. But, other than that, he won't be allowed to leave home.

BROWN: Got it.

Susan, thank you very much -- Susan Candiotti.

A big up day in the markets today. We'll get to that in a second in our "MONEYLINE Roundup."

First, though, the Food and Drug Administration today announced new steps to protect Americans from mad cow disease. The steps, which include further restrictions on using animal waste products in cattle feed, come in the wake of the nation's first mad cow case.

On to the Martha Stewart trial. The trial itself on obstruction of justice and securities fraud will begin tomorrow. The jury has been chosen, eight women, four men seated today. The group includes a reverend, a man who lost money in mutual funds because of the Enron collapse and a person who complained the government hasn't moved fast enough to prosecute corporate scandals. Those are the ones who made it on to the jury. Imagine the ones who didn't.

And in the category of what can you give the man who literally has everything, Bill Gates will soon become a knight. The honorary award was announced today by the British Foreign Office. Queen Elizabeth will actually knight him Mr. Gates at later time.

And a princely day in the markets. The Dow and the Nasdaq closed at their highest levels since mid-2001, the Dow at 10007, its highest market in 31 months, the Nasdaq 2153 and change, its highest close in 30 months. It makes you want to go out and buy some of those Internet stocks, doesn't it?

Still to come on the program, morning papers, of course. Up next, a conversation with Howard Dean.

This is NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, we're in an odd sort of time warp. About an hour and a quarter from now, the 11 inhabitants of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, will, as they always do, cast their ballots. Of course, if you're watching this on tonight's replay, that has already happened. Einstein's theory of relatively has nothing on cable TV.

And just to make it a little bit more complicated, we talked with Howard Dean earlier this afternoon. And if any of you out there in those other time zones already know how he is doing, trust me, when we talked, he didn't. He could only hope that he was close, so close that anything from policies to personalities could tip the election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Governor, let's see if we can get through this whole interview without talking about a week ago Monday night. But I do want to...

(LAUGHTER)

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think you just failed.

BROWN: I do want to know if it surprises you, concerns you that, clearly, part of the selection process has to do with your person, as opposed to simply the platform and your ideas, that people need to be comfortable with you?

DEAN: No, I actually think that's very important.

It's one of the reasons that Judy came out both to Iowa and to New Hampshire for a couple of days. I think it is important that people know who I am. They need to be comfortable with me as a person, not just as a person who has some ideas and thoughts about what's good for the country.

BROWN: Is that something that you entered the race believing or is it something you came to believe?

DEAN: No, I always knew that that would be true.

I am a private person, generally, so I don't readily share details of my private life. But I've disciplined myself to try to make myself do that some more. I think people have to like the president. They don't want to just put in somebody who's a good manager. Look, I'm a great manager. There are a lot of other people who are good managers, too. But I think you really have to like the person that you want to be your president. And you got to get to know them in order to like them.

BROWN: Let's talk a little bit about issues here.

Do you worry ever that your campaign is too identified with one issue, Iraq, and not identified more broadly with other things?

DEAN: Well, I actually don't think voters believe that.

I think that my campaign is really identified with some personality traits: Stand up for what you believe in and don't worry about what the polls say. And Iraq is a piece of that. I stood up against Iraq when nobody else would. But No Child Left Behind is a piece of that, too. No Child Left Behind is a disaster in places like New Hampshire and Iowa.

And I knew that early, because I was a governor. And the guys in the Senate all voted for it. So, standing up for what you believe in is part of the issue. The other part of the issue is actually accomplishing something. I've balanced budgets. I've delivered health care to every child under the age of 18. That's something you can't say if you're in the Senate or in a legislative body.

So, those are the kinds of things that I think make the campaign go. We're all good on the environment. We all have the same health care plans. The difference is that I delivered a health care plan. So that I think is what the real differences are in the campaign.

BROWN: But I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if you worry that, while that's how you see yourself and that's certainly how the campaign wants you to be seen, that you are still seen as, he's the guy who really is against the war in Iraq?

DEAN: Well, if I'm seen by that -- like that by people who don't like the war in Iraq, that's not a bad thing.

I think, interestingly, there's a disconnect between what the media thinks people see and what the media sees. You all -- you just said you didn't want to bring up the speech in Iowa, but I'll bring up the speech in Iowa. You guys played that 673 times last week, according to a piece I read.

And most people I've talked to thought -- some thought it was over the top. And it certainly wasn't presidential. Most people saw it for what it was, a real pep rally type of thing. And you all saw something different in that. And I think there's a disconnect not just between what politicians think that ordinary people see, but there's also a disconnect between what the media thinks ordinary people see.

I believe that people know enough about me now so they can start to make significant judgments. They know I'll stand up for what I believe in. They know we have the kind of campaign that -- where 89 percent of our money comes from small donations. And they know that, as a governor, I have a different set of experiences than senators and congressmen do. That's what people really need to know when they start to make decisions.

BROWN: Let me ask you a couple more things before I let you get away. Do you agree with this, that, to get to the White House, you first and foremost have to get people comfortable with your view on national security, because they won't even look at the other stuff if they're not there?

DEAN: I think that's not entirely true, but there is a significant amount of truth to it.

People's major issues now are jobs, health insurance and health care and education. National security is very important, but it's not going to win or lose the election.

BROWN: You really believe it's not going to win or lose the election, that, if people are uncomfortable with you on national security, you could still prevail in a general election?

DEAN: Well, I don't think -- I think there's a different degree of comfort in national security.

I think people ought to be very uncomfortable with the president on national security, because we are not as safe now as we were when he came into office. He has different priorities. For example, his tax cuts are a big priority. Buying the enriched uranium stocks of the former Soviet Union don't seem to be a priority. Neither does inspecting the containers that come into this country, one of which contained uranium courtesy of one of the major news organizations, just to see if they could do it.

So I think the key is going to be to debate the president on the issue of national security. And I think you will find that he comes up short on national security.

BROWN: Governor, you have a long, long day tomorrow. We appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so very much.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Thanks very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Howard Dean. I'm sure that was the only interview he gave today.

Morning papers are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around at least a small part of the world.

If you're traveling -- I'm traveling, but I'm not traveling abroad. If you're traveling abroad, you may run into "The International Herald Tribune," published in France. I suspect this story will be on the front page of "The New York Times" as well tomorrow. "Kindler, Gentler Cheney Returns to Spotlight" is one of the front-page stories. There are a number of them, of course, but they seem to spotlight that , and a very nice picture of Vice President Cheney and his wife walking in a cemetery in Italy, shot by Scott Applewhite of the AP. Nice job.

Since we're in Atlanta, we might as well do the Atlanta paper. That's the right thing do. And they lead local. "Buckhead Bars Go Underground." Buckhead is an area -- it's a suburb or an area of Atlanta, kind of tony. "Longer Hours Lure Nightspots Downtown" is the lead. Also, "killer Bird Flu Rampant," always a lot of medical stories in the Atlanta paper, because the CDC is here and there is a lot of interest in medical news as well.

"The Dallas Morning News" leads with football. "Unrivaled Moneymaker." The Super Bowl, I hear playing they're going to play that in Texas this week. I think the pregame show has already started, actually. "First, the Playoffs, Then the Payoffs. Unrivaled Moneymaker." The Super Bowl could mean $300 million for Houston, sort of chump change for Bill Gates, but what the heck.

"The Boston Herald." We'll move to politics here. "Eyes on the Prize. Rivals Hope to Knock Out Kerry in New Hampshire Today" is the way "The Boston Herald" leads it.

"The Oregonian" out West, that would be "The Portland Oregonian." "Criticism Flies on Eve of Primary." And pictures of Governor Dean, General Clark, John Edwards, and John Kerry. You don't want to be the one who doesn't get pictured. Also, "FDA Tightens Feed Rules on Cattle" after -- that's the mad cow story we told you about. The mad cow was found -- or the cow with mad cow -- you know what I mean -- was found in Washington state.

One more political one here. "The Dartmouth." "The Dartmouth," that would be newspaper of? Yes, Dartmouth. "Pencils Down" is their headline. I love that headline, with four of the candidates. America's oldest college newspaper. "The Dartmouth" was founded in 1799. Thank you for sending that our way.

"The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review," if I could get my hands on it. "Bush Aide Retreats on WMDs." The White House now is refusing to say Iraq had such weapons.

And we'll end it with "The Chicago Sun-Times." The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "an added insult." That's your "Sun." I'm sorry. I didn't wait for that little goofball sound effect, did I?

That's your morning papers. And we'll take a break and wrap up the day in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick recap of our top story.

Down to the final moments in New Hampshire. They'll actually start voting in some parts of the state in about an hour, the final full day of campaigning today. Iraq and the war were front and center again, all seven candidates making the case in seven different ways that they are the one who could beat George W. Bush. John Kerry still leads in the polls, Howard Dean behind, lots of undecided voters. It is New Hampshire and it will be cold on Election Day. Soledad O'Brien now with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.

Tomorrow, on "AMERICAN MORNING," live from Los Angeles, the Oscar nominations. Who will be in the running for the most coveted award in Hollywood? The Academy makes its selections at 8:30 Eastern. We'll be there before and during and after on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" -- back to you, Aaron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Thank you.

CNN election coverage tomorrow night. We'll see you again Wednesday, weather permitting, from New York.

Good night for all of us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Intelligence Community; Lionel Tate Released>


Aired January 26, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening, everyone. We are in Atlanta tonight. And for those of you in our audience who are Republicans, we apologize. The Democrats own the night.
Some other year, it will be the other way around. But tonight, it is their time, the Democrats time. Tomorrow the political landscape will be more clear. New Hampshire doesn't by any stretch pick the nominee, and tomorrow's winner cannot start writing an acceptance speech for the convention this summer.

But who wins matters. As John Kerry found in Iowa, just winning one of these could boost your prospects down the road. But there are also signs tonight that Dean's slide has hit bottom, and bounced back. There are signs that John Edwards is still a player as things prepare to move south.

And there are also troubling signs for candidates Lieberman and Clark, who have essentially bet the farm on New Hampshire. Politics and lots of it. Top the program tonight. And of course begin "The Whip." First to New Hampshire with just a couple of hours to go before the voting really does begin. CNN's Candy Crowley there to start it off, Candy, headlines.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, less than 24 hours until the next step in a campaign that has taken a lot of turns. But has never once veered from its central theme. A war in a place very far away -- Aaron.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. To Washington next. Provocative charges about weapons of mass destruction from the man once charged with finding them. CNN's David Ensor has been working on this. David, the headline from you tonight?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, no sooner was David Kay off the CIA payroll, and he began to criticize U.S. intelligence from mistakes he thinks were made about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the war. He predicts that none will be found. He says that Iraqi scientists were lying even to Saddam Hussein.

BROWN: David, thank you.

South Carolina now. Just one of many states hit by nasty winter storms tonight. Gary Tuchman on the story. Gary, a headline?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, yes, it's winter, so we expect winter weather. But some very severe conditions have affected a large portion of the country. Aaron?

BROWN: Gary, thank you.

And finally, Fort Lauderdale Florida, where 16-year-old Lionel Tate walked out of jail today. Free for the first time in three years. Susan Candiotti has been covering this for most of that time. Susan, a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron. Yes, Lionel Tate is home at this hour under house arrest, but he will be back in court later this week to plead guilty for murdering 6-year- old Tiffany Eunick. It is still a controversial case.

BROWN: Susan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly. Also, coming up on this Monday night from Atlanta, we'll go back to mars. No, you do not need your little 3-D glasses for this one. But there are some cool pictures, and we'll show them to you tonight.

We'll also talk tonight with Governor Howard Dean on the eve of the first big primary. See how he feels about the campaign in it's final hours. And fresh from a weekend on the slopes, the rooster stops by to drop off your morning papers for Tuesday. All that and more in the hour ahead.

We of course begin in New Hampshire, where the candidates spent another bitterly cold day shaking hands and making speeches. And giving interviews. Each again and again saying that he is the one who can beat George W. Bush. The candidates were on the stump. The pollsters on the phone. And the reporters trying to keep up with both. We begin tonight with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): Iowa changed the dynamics, Kerry is up now. Dean is down. Still, the struggle in New Hampshire is ending where it began a year ago. Over a war 5,800 miles away.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Where was John Kerry when George Bush was giving out this misinformation about Saddam had something to do with al Qaeda? He was voting in favor of the war, and it turned out all the reasons that the president gave us were not true. Foreign policy expertise depends on patience and judgment. I question Senator Kerry's judgment.

CROWLEY: Kerry's campaign called Dean's words a last desperate attack. But in the townhalls, he still gets asked.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If any of you in New Hampshire believe that with my record, I would have taken the authority that we were given in order to get the inspectors in and have a legitimate threat of war, so go to war as a last resort, if you think I would have gone to war the way George Bush did, don't vote for me.

CROWLEY: Down the totem pole, Joe Lieberman, the unapologetic pro-war candidate struggles for relevance in a primary season dominated by the anti-war wing of his party.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The independents will play a critical role for me tomorrow. I'm counting on...

CROWLEY: Save for Lieberman, they're all pretty much anti-war now, or at least anti-post war. They have found ways to walk away from their votes. The latest is a report that an intelligence failure led to the erroneous conclusion that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why is there a discrepancy? Did somebody intentionally mislead? And if so, they need to be held accountable.

CROWLEY: One way or another, the war is there. It explains the candidacy of the general who's title and anti-war rhetoric seemed like a winning combo for Democrats. But his star is fading now, and he campaigns now as just an ordinary guy.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not part of the problems in Washington. I've never taken money from lobbyists. I've never cut a deal. I have never run for votes.

CROWLEY: There are other issues. In fact voters say they care most about the economy. But in the end, this is the campaign that the war shaped.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: It may not matter now who was for, or who was against the war. Because at the moment, they are all pretty much on the same side of the line -- Aaron.

BROWN: Stick around. We'll talk some more in a minute. But as people will hear later, I asked Howard Dean this afternoon that very question. If his candidacy was all about the war, or surrounding the war. We'll get to that later in the program.

Analysts are predicting a record turnout in New Hampshire tomorrow. How the cold weather will affect things remains unknown, because it is New Hampshire, and they are not exactly -- cold doesn't normally scare them off. New Hampshire as historically rewarded outsiders and independents at the ballot box. Like so many calculations in politics, it is not a simple one. Times change. Voters change. And New Hampshire itself has changed a lot in recent years. Here is CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel quite sure that I'm going to be nominated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The pattern was set from the very beginning. Back in 1952 when the New Hampshire primary was new, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of organized crime and Democratic Party bosses challenged President Harry Truman in the New Hampshire primary and won.

And ever since, the outsider, the reformer, the Democrat at odds with his own party has managed an impressive showing, if not outright victory in New Hampshire. Eugene McCarthy in '68. George McGovern in '72. Gary Hart in '84. Paul Tsongas in '92. Bill Bradley in 2000.

DANTE SCALA, ST. ANSELM COLLEGE: There is a block of voters in New Hampshire every four years, who are looking, even hungering for somebody who will carry the mantel of reform and change for the Democratic Party.

GREENFIELD: Dante Scala teaches politics at St. Anselm College, and wrote the book literally, about New Hampshire Democrats. These reform voters, he says, are not your father's Democrats.

SCALA: They pick issues that become signature issues that are off the beaten track. Off the traditional bread and butter issues of jobs, and economic security, that characterize traditional Democratic candidates.

GREENFIELD: What this means says Scala, is that there are broadly speaking, two kinds of New Hampshire Democrats. Call them regulars versus reformers. Or working class versus elitist. Or the wine track versus the beer track.

You will find the blue collar Democrats in the city of Manchester. To the southwest in Cheshire County. Up north in Berlin, in what is left of that region's industrial base. Reformers by contrast are strong in the so-called collar towns around Manchester. Bedford, for example. In some of the border towns by the Massachusetts border. And in Hanover, home of dog-mitten (ph). And parts of Durham, home of the state university.

This division dramatically played out four years ago as you can see in this spacialogic (ph) map. Bill Bradley won the collar towns, the border towns, and the college communities shown in gold. But Al Gore won his narrow victory by carrying the blue-collar townships of Manchester, shown in blue.

With each primary the working class share, the vote shrinks. This should be great news for Howard Dean. The classic reform style candidate who shot to Prominence by challenging the Washington Democrats for their votes on the Iraq war. And in fact, Dean had a 30-point plus lead when the New Year began.

But on the eve of the primary, it appears that electability rather than any classic reform issue is dominating. It is thus John Kerry, who commands the lead in the polls and with it, the possibility of winning both the wine track and the beer track wings of the party. That could have real significance down the primary road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there's a candidate out there who can carry Manchester, and a majority of the collar towns surrounding Manchester, you might be looking at the next Democratic presidential nominee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Now, even if John Kerry does manage to win with a broad based vote, this wine track/beer track divide could still matter in the inevitable who wins the better than expectations prize? The reformed message might still work for Howard Dean. The popular small town boy themes of John Edwards seem right for the blue collars.

So does Wes Clark's military background. And Joe Lieberman beckons to independents, which is one reason why one of the questions we'll be trying very hard to answer tomorrow night is, where are the votes coming from? Aaron?

BROWN: Jeff, a lot of pieces in this puzzle to consider. Our troops on the ground have been freezing much of the weekend. But they're warm and inside and have some time to talk, so we'll go back to Jeff and Candy. And we'll be joined as well by Bill Schneider, our Senior Political Analyst. It's good to have you all here with us tonight.

Bill, let me start. Briefly, what are the latest polls saying? How consistent are they?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well the latest polls saying Kerry's ahead. He's ahead by 3 or 11 or 13 or 18 or 20 or 21. But he's ahead in the polls. We don't know how close it's going to be. And that makes a difference, because Kerry is expected to win, but if he wins by a very narrow margin, as some of these polls suggest, it'll be an unimpressive win and he won't get bounce out of it.

And Howard Dean, if, if, if he comes in second, can say he was vindicated because he did, as we say, better than expected.

BROWN: Jeff, you've been in the state all week. What's the most important moment you saw this week?

GREENFIELD: Wow. I guess the most important moments that I saw was trying -- when I could wedge myself in between the 5,000 other members of the press, trying to watch Howard Dean. And there were really two Howard Deans that I saw.

One was a kind of -- a guy working on not robotic but kind of working in a very formulaic way, giving the same speech all the time, with body language that did not necessarily suggest enthusiasm. But I also saw a Howard Dean who was campaigning with his wife, who seemed relaxed when she was around.

Who brought her out on stage in the last minute or two, and as we just saw in Candy's piece, has decided to return to the girl that brung him, or the guy that brung him. The theme that the other candidates, in this case John Kerry were wrong on the war. And, to me, that's what I was most watching.

BROWN: And Candy, you were in Iowa and now in New Hampshire. How has either the message or the tone of the campaign generally been different in New Hampshire than it was in Iowa?

CROWLEY: Up until today, I thought it was a less aggressive tone on the part of all the campaigns. Today, it did seem to take a turn. With Howard Dean and then, with John Kerry responding. That sort of last minute pushing and shoving back and forth. But until up until now, it's been a pretty -- everybody got back on target. Everybody was minding their P's and Q's. And they were kind of running their separate ships in the night. Today they collided.

BROWN: Bill, does everybody in the bottom tier, what we believe the bottom tier is going to be, have enough money to keep competing for another week or so?

SCHNEIDER: Well, Wesley Clark says -- I asked him. I asked his people, does he have enough money to go on? They said he can go on probably to Wisconsin. Because he's raised a lot of money. I don't think Dennis Kucinich or Joe Lieberman are going to be able do that really.

Look after the top three. Numbers 4, five, and six are going to have to think real hard about whether they continuing that race. Al Sharpton is a special case because he has a base in South Carolina.

Wesley Clark's probably got the biggest question because; I believe if Wesley Clark had run in Iowa, he might have been John Kerry. He might have won Iowa, because he looks electable. His problem is, he competes with Kerry on electability. He competes with Dean as the outsider. He competes with Edwards as the southerner. He competes with Lieberman as the guy who can attract Republicans.

So people who are looking for those qualities have somebody else to vote for. Clark is trying to argue I'm all those things. I'm the whole package. But it is not getting through.

GREENFIELD: Aaron, can I make a brief point on that?

BROWN: Please.

GREENFIELD: I thought this is has been a terrible week for Wesley Clark. I think that, for the guy who was moving up and challenging Dean, it wasn't just that John Kerry became the surprise foe. There are a lot of people; I want to be very blunt about this. People who are impressed with him on his resume and his first entrance who were saying this is not ready for prime time player.

Whether it was the debate the other night, whether it was his appearance on "Meet the Press", whether it was his apparent inability to ever say he was wrong. Whether it was his kind of almost (UNINTELLIGIBLE) return to the fact that I'm the only guy who didn't go to Yale, and then he said I'm the only guy that worked my way through college. Well you don't work your way through college at West Point.

And John Edwards did, he has just stepped on his message -- I'll put that as polite as possible -- over and over again. And quite apart from the money, which I think he have to go on for a while, the assessment of that campaign is if he comes in fourth or fifth, is he ready to go on?

BROWN: Candy, is the John Kerry who has campaigned, who seemed in the last days of Iowa to find a little more comfort out there to find his voice. Did he sustain that throughout? Or did he grow progressively more cautious as Election Day grew closer?

CROWLEY: I actually think they were all pretty cautious in the early days of the New Hampshire post Iowa. Nothing is more relaxing than success. I think John Kerry came out. I mean, everybody was surprised. He had everything going for him. He was getting a second look.

Dean was in this free fall. And that's a pretty good place to be so yes; he was much more relaxed than we had seen him in months prior when he was really battling, for his political career. And it does relax one when one has that kind of success.

SCHNEIDER: Aaron, if I can mention something. The big question for John Kerry, is if he does win tomorrow, even by a convincing margin, where does he go from here? You have a bunch of primaries next week. And I've talked to operatives in those states, and they say there isn't much of a John Kerry operation in South Carolina.

Or even in Arizona or Missouri. There's something going on there, and he does have this momentum if he wins here and he can hope that that delivers those states for him. But he doesn't have much on the ground and he has to prove that he can compete all across the country. Because the take on him from people like John Edwards is, he's not really a national candidate. He has got to prove that.

BROWN: Jeff, just pick up on that then. At one level, the obvious answer to me seems to be, he goes to Missouri, there's a lot of delegates at stake there. Does he need to go to South Carolina, and go (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with John Edwards down there?

GREENFIELD: Well, I don't see how he avoids South Carolina because as Bill said, if the rap on this guy is south of the Mason Dixon line, he's about as popular as General Grant. He's going to have to say no.

He doesn't have to win in South Carolina. And the Kerry people to their credit, when John Kerry was at the absolute bottom, I talked to one of their guys, just when they decided to make Iowa the place, he said remember, this is about delegates. At that point, his thing was we don't have to win anywhere early. They've obviously changed that.

So I think he has to show. There are three key states next week. No offense to the others, there is Arizona, South Carolina, and Missouri, the biggest prize. If Kerry goes there and that's what he has to do.

BROWN: We'll be watching all of you tomorrow. Have a good night. Thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you.

Later on the program, we'll talk with Howard Dean about how he sees the campaign. Just a night before the primary. Up next though, nasty weather across much of the country. Already responsible for more than 20 deaths, and it's just getting started in parts of the Northeast.

We'll also look at the latest spectacular photos from Mars, now that NASA has a second rover in place. All of this from Atlanta tonight, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Seven days to go, and doesn't look especially good for the ground hog. Winter storms are making life miserable, and travel treacherous from the plains all the way on east. It is winter of course, but we should expect snow and cold, but not this much. Meteorologists are calling this blast of frigid weather unusual. We'll call it deadly, too. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They were fishing on iced over Lake Erie in North Central Ohio. But then high winds cracked the ice. Fourteen men were stranded on ice chunks, until they were rescued by the cost guard.

They were luckier than some others. A complex series of winter storms from the plains, to the East Coast, from the Great Lakes to Dixie, has left at least 25 people dead. In Omaha Nebraska, four people including children were killed when their car slid into a truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snow and ice on the roads and had an individual lose control.

TUCHMAN: Pittsburgh has also been hit hard by the snow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need four wheel for this. This is really bad.

TUCHMAN: I other places, ice and freezing rain are the problems. Like the Carolinas and Georgia. Where firefighters brave the cold to fight a fire caused when a tanker slid off a highway that in essence became a skating rink.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a man who got out of his vehicle after an accident at a bridge had a very close call. Another driver slammed into pickup truck almost knocking him off the bridge. He was not seriously hurt.

In the nation's capital, snowplows cleared the streets while skiers snowplowed near the Washington monument. In Philadelphia, the plows and salt trucks tried to keep up with the snow and ice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a late start, so the roads have been plowed a little bit. Ice a little dangerous in spots.

TUCHMAN: Dangerous in Missouri too, where 18-wheelers were sliding off roadways choked with snow and accidents. Hundreds of flights were canceled at the nation's airports. Tens of thousands of people were without power.

The weather even caused President Bush to change the plans. After returning from a visit to Arkansas, his helicopter trip from Andrew's Air force Base to the White House was scrapped for a snowy motorcade.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Here in the state of South Carolina alone, six people have died in icy highways over the last 24 hours. Tens of thousands of customers in this state are still without power. And many schools and businesses will be closed tomorrow. But the weather here is expected to improve tomorrow. That is not the case in parts of the Midwest and the Northeast where more bad weather is on the way. Aaron.

BROWN: Gary, thank you. On to mars. Where the weather is mysterious. "Spirit" appears to be on the mend and "Opportunity" has arrived. Just in time perhaps. On the opposite side of the planet from its ailing twin. The second rover has beamed back it's first pictures, and what a spectacular view it is. Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Greetings from mars where "Opportunity" has cratered. The six foot deep, 60-foot wide depression is ringed by ringed by exposed bedrock, or outcropping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outcropping, we're seeing outcrops. This is like a holy grail for a geologist to be able to see these incredible rocks that were -- are in their native habitat. And we are going to explore them with the rover.

O'BRIEN: For scientists, outcrop are more interesting than loose rocks because you know where they came from. The minerals found here will tell a very compelling story of this place. And may offer clues about how Mars likely went from warm and wet to brutally cold and dry. The soil may do the same. The team believes it is laced with (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a mineral that is born in the presence of water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rocks are distinctly brighter. We're don't know what they're made of yet. And we're itching to get over there and find out.

O'BRIEN: They are also itching to figure out what went wrong with "Opportunity's" twin on the other side of Mars last week. Engineers using a model rover here on earth tested one theory, that "Spirit's" memory was swamped by too many old files.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We actually went ahead and caused the problem to happen and looked at the results of causing that problem to happen and it looked very similar to the problem we're seeing on "Spirit." O'BRIEN (on camera): That isn't the final word on "Spirit's" woes, but it's probably pretty close. The engineering team is deleting old computer files as quickly as it can. With "Spirit" unburdened by a clogged computer, there's every reason to believe it will be off to the races no worse for the wear in fairly short order.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Pasadena California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Before we go to break, some other stories making news around the country starting with a death penalty case. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld executing people younger than 18 at the time of their crimes. Today, the justices agreed to revisit that question. The case involves a man who committed a murder in a robbery when he was 17. His death sentence overturned last year by the Supreme Court in Missouri.

U.S. Supreme Court justices turned down an appeal today from Sammy the Bull, a.k.a. -- Gravano, Sammy the Bull Gravano. The former Mafia hitman who is currently serving a 20-year sentence and trying to reclaim more than $380,000 in royalties from a book about his life. An Arizona court ruled the prosecutors were correct in seizing his money.

And after 25 years with the program "20/20," and an illustrious career, Barbara Walters is stepping down from the news bank scene. She said she'd leaving in September, earlier than many expected. She wants to have more flexibility in her life. Miss Walter's is in her 70s, and will be active in the news division according to ABC.

Next up on NEWSNIGHT, the weapons of mass destruction, and the question of who, if anyone takes the blame if none are found in Iraq. From Atlanta, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The Democratic scramble has provided one positive for the current inhabitants of 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's helped mute a bit this story. A story that must make the White House squirm at least a bit.

The man whose job it was until Friday to find the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The weapons that were the principle, though not the only reason to launch a war, is telling most anyone who will listen there are no WMDs the found in Iraq, because they weren't there when the war began.

For some, this is a political story. David Kay knows better. The man who sought these deadly weapons sees this as a failure of national intelligence. Something worrisome no matter your politics or parties. Here's CNN's David Ensor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): Since leaving the job, weapons inspector David Kay has been talking. Blaming the CIA, his employers until Friday, not the White House, for getting it wrong on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

DAVID KAY, FORMER CIA WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Clearly, the intelligence that we went to war on was inaccurate. Wrong. We need to understand why that was. I think if anyone was abused by the intelligence, it was the President of the United States, other than the other way around.

ENSOR: Administration officials liked that last comment and they looked Kay's statement that Baghdad was actively working to produce a biological weapon using the poison ricin right up until the American invasion.

But his statement that he now believes no stockpiles of weapons existed in Iraq before the war has put the administration on the defensive.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, the former dictator sits in captivity. He can no longer harbor or support terrorists.

ENSOR: Noticeably absence from the vice president's speech was the presumption he expressed only last week that weapons would be found in Iraq. And the president's spokesman, too, is no longer insisting that weapons will be found.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats saw Kay's statements as another reason the Intelligence Committees should look into what went wrong at the CIA and at the White House.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: We simply cannot afford to ignore what happened, why it happened, and how we can prevent it from happening again.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: The administration, I think we are now learning, selectively picked that intelligence which supported its point of view.

ENSOR: Senior administration officials said it will be up to George Tenet to provide answers if no weapons are found. The director of central intelligence is due on Capitol Hill for hearings in February and March.

Kay is saying one reason U.S. intelligence may have gotten it wrong on WMD is that Iraqi scientists were running fake programs, fooling even their leader.

KAY: They describe an Iraq that was really spinning into a vortex of corruption from the very top, in which people were lying to Saddam, lying to each other for money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: Frustrated U.S. intelligence officials note that Kay says he quit his CIA job because he didn't have enough people. And yet now he says there's no point in looking because there's nothing to find. As one official put it, Kay can't have it both ways -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, in the intelligence community, as best you can assess this, is there a recognition, is there a belief that there are no weapons and there were no weapons or are the intelligence folks not ready to go that far?

ENSOR: It's a mixed picture.

There are some who now believe that. But I've talked to a number of people who say they still think there may be weapons of mass destruction found, most likely in small numbers and chemical shells, probably not enough to be effective on the battlefield. So, in a way, they're conceding that there were not the kinds of weapons of mass destruction supplies that President Bush supposedly went to war about.

So it's a mixed picture, but people are beginning to believe what you heard David Kay say.

BROWN: David Ensor, thank you -- David Ensor in Washington tonight.

Before we go to our next break, a quick look some at the top stories that made news around the world today.

Baghdad first. Weapons of mass destruction or not, the city remains a dangerous place. Today, a rocket struck within the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area controlled by the U.S.-led coalition. Military officials say no one was injured.

Israel. In the first step of a proposed prisoner swap, Israeli soldiers today began digging up the graves of 59 Hezbollah members. The remains are expected to be turned over to the Lebanese-based militia on Thursday. In exchange, Hezbollah will hand over one Israeli prisoner of war, or prisoner, a businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

And finally, the government of Thailand today confirmed the country's first death from bird flu. This fast-spreading disease has already claimed the lives of six Vietnamese. And outbreaks have been reported in India and in Pakistan as well.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll talk with former Governor Howard Dean, Democratic presidential hopeful, as we head into the New Hampshire primary tomorrow.

Up next, the story of Lionel Tate, sent to prison for life without parole, a killing that occurred when he was 12. But he's out of jail tonight.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I'm not saying anything about that Macintosh story.

Second chances don't happen every day. And for many, they never happen at all. But today in Florida, just a few days before his 17th birthday, Lionel Tate got his second chance, a chance to start again. And it came from the same judge who sent him away to prison for life without parole when he was just 14.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surrounded by supporters, including Black Cops Against Police Brutality and the Nation of Islam, Lionel Tate walked out of the jail free on bond. His supporters say, a party awaits him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Lionel!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lionel.

CANDIOTTI: After spending three years in juvenile prison for killing Tiffany Eunick, his conviction was thrown out on a technicality, the state deciding against retrying the politically charged case. For now, Lionel's lawyers not allowing him to talk.

RICHARD ROSENBAUM, ATTORNEY FOR TATE: I cannot let him speak until I get him back in his mother's arms for sure and for good. Those of you that know me know that we've taken a serious vow to get Lionel out of jail. And until our dolphin swims to freedom, we cannot let him say a word.

CANDIOTTI: It is stunning to see how much Tate changed physically in his three years behind bars. No longer a pudgy first- degree murder defendant at age 12, Lionel Tate is now days away from turning 17 and pleading guilty to murdering Tiffany Eunick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here on the matter of the State of Florida vs. Lionel Tate.

CANDIOTTI: This hearing formality, freeing Lionel on bond. He'll be back Thursday to accept a second-degree murder plea.

Watching at a distance, his mother and his victim's mother. Her daughter Tiffany suffered more than 30 injuries, including a fractured skull. She agreed to Lionel's plea deal. As a victim, she had a right to weigh in. It was an offer he turned down before trial, in part because Lionel's mother insisted Tiffany's death was an accident, and still does, which does not sit well with the victim's mother.

DEWEESE EUNICK-PAUL, MOTHER OF TIFFANY EUNICK: But I do know that it makes me sick, very sick, for you to know that your -- your child brutally murdered someone and you can stand up there as a mother to say that it was an accident.

CANDIOTTI: Lionel's lawyers say his mother has apologized in private.

KATHLEEN GROSSETT-TATE, MOTHER OF TATE: And I just want to thank all the people that prayed for our family and for Tiffany's family. And just continue to pray for us, because we're going to need it. This is a new chapter in our lives. And we're just going to go on forward.

CANDIOTTI: Tate goes home under house arrest for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And he, tonight, is wearing an electronic monitor, the same one he'll be wearing after his formal sentencing on Thursday. He'll be serving one year of house arrest, 10 years of probation, community service and counseling.

In other words, he'll be getting a second chance, something his victim's mother reminds of Lionel of face to face in court on Thursday -- Aaron.

BROWN: Does he go to school?

CANDIOTTI: He will be going to school, probably one of these so- called alternative schools. But, other than that, he won't be allowed to leave home.

BROWN: Got it.

Susan, thank you very much -- Susan Candiotti.

A big up day in the markets today. We'll get to that in a second in our "MONEYLINE Roundup."

First, though, the Food and Drug Administration today announced new steps to protect Americans from mad cow disease. The steps, which include further restrictions on using animal waste products in cattle feed, come in the wake of the nation's first mad cow case.

On to the Martha Stewart trial. The trial itself on obstruction of justice and securities fraud will begin tomorrow. The jury has been chosen, eight women, four men seated today. The group includes a reverend, a man who lost money in mutual funds because of the Enron collapse and a person who complained the government hasn't moved fast enough to prosecute corporate scandals. Those are the ones who made it on to the jury. Imagine the ones who didn't.

And in the category of what can you give the man who literally has everything, Bill Gates will soon become a knight. The honorary award was announced today by the British Foreign Office. Queen Elizabeth will actually knight him Mr. Gates at later time.

And a princely day in the markets. The Dow and the Nasdaq closed at their highest levels since mid-2001, the Dow at 10007, its highest market in 31 months, the Nasdaq 2153 and change, its highest close in 30 months. It makes you want to go out and buy some of those Internet stocks, doesn't it?

Still to come on the program, morning papers, of course. Up next, a conversation with Howard Dean.

This is NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, we're in an odd sort of time warp. About an hour and a quarter from now, the 11 inhabitants of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, will, as they always do, cast their ballots. Of course, if you're watching this on tonight's replay, that has already happened. Einstein's theory of relatively has nothing on cable TV.

And just to make it a little bit more complicated, we talked with Howard Dean earlier this afternoon. And if any of you out there in those other time zones already know how he is doing, trust me, when we talked, he didn't. He could only hope that he was close, so close that anything from policies to personalities could tip the election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Governor, let's see if we can get through this whole interview without talking about a week ago Monday night. But I do want to...

(LAUGHTER)

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think you just failed.

BROWN: I do want to know if it surprises you, concerns you that, clearly, part of the selection process has to do with your person, as opposed to simply the platform and your ideas, that people need to be comfortable with you?

DEAN: No, I actually think that's very important.

It's one of the reasons that Judy came out both to Iowa and to New Hampshire for a couple of days. I think it is important that people know who I am. They need to be comfortable with me as a person, not just as a person who has some ideas and thoughts about what's good for the country.

BROWN: Is that something that you entered the race believing or is it something you came to believe?

DEAN: No, I always knew that that would be true.

I am a private person, generally, so I don't readily share details of my private life. But I've disciplined myself to try to make myself do that some more. I think people have to like the president. They don't want to just put in somebody who's a good manager. Look, I'm a great manager. There are a lot of other people who are good managers, too. But I think you really have to like the person that you want to be your president. And you got to get to know them in order to like them.

BROWN: Let's talk a little bit about issues here.

Do you worry ever that your campaign is too identified with one issue, Iraq, and not identified more broadly with other things?

DEAN: Well, I actually don't think voters believe that.

I think that my campaign is really identified with some personality traits: Stand up for what you believe in and don't worry about what the polls say. And Iraq is a piece of that. I stood up against Iraq when nobody else would. But No Child Left Behind is a piece of that, too. No Child Left Behind is a disaster in places like New Hampshire and Iowa.

And I knew that early, because I was a governor. And the guys in the Senate all voted for it. So, standing up for what you believe in is part of the issue. The other part of the issue is actually accomplishing something. I've balanced budgets. I've delivered health care to every child under the age of 18. That's something you can't say if you're in the Senate or in a legislative body.

So, those are the kinds of things that I think make the campaign go. We're all good on the environment. We all have the same health care plans. The difference is that I delivered a health care plan. So that I think is what the real differences are in the campaign.

BROWN: But I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if you worry that, while that's how you see yourself and that's certainly how the campaign wants you to be seen, that you are still seen as, he's the guy who really is against the war in Iraq?

DEAN: Well, if I'm seen by that -- like that by people who don't like the war in Iraq, that's not a bad thing.

I think, interestingly, there's a disconnect between what the media thinks people see and what the media sees. You all -- you just said you didn't want to bring up the speech in Iowa, but I'll bring up the speech in Iowa. You guys played that 673 times last week, according to a piece I read.

And most people I've talked to thought -- some thought it was over the top. And it certainly wasn't presidential. Most people saw it for what it was, a real pep rally type of thing. And you all saw something different in that. And I think there's a disconnect not just between what politicians think that ordinary people see, but there's also a disconnect between what the media thinks ordinary people see.

I believe that people know enough about me now so they can start to make significant judgments. They know I'll stand up for what I believe in. They know we have the kind of campaign that -- where 89 percent of our money comes from small donations. And they know that, as a governor, I have a different set of experiences than senators and congressmen do. That's what people really need to know when they start to make decisions.

BROWN: Let me ask you a couple more things before I let you get away. Do you agree with this, that, to get to the White House, you first and foremost have to get people comfortable with your view on national security, because they won't even look at the other stuff if they're not there?

DEAN: I think that's not entirely true, but there is a significant amount of truth to it.

People's major issues now are jobs, health insurance and health care and education. National security is very important, but it's not going to win or lose the election.

BROWN: You really believe it's not going to win or lose the election, that, if people are uncomfortable with you on national security, you could still prevail in a general election?

DEAN: Well, I don't think -- I think there's a different degree of comfort in national security.

I think people ought to be very uncomfortable with the president on national security, because we are not as safe now as we were when he came into office. He has different priorities. For example, his tax cuts are a big priority. Buying the enriched uranium stocks of the former Soviet Union don't seem to be a priority. Neither does inspecting the containers that come into this country, one of which contained uranium courtesy of one of the major news organizations, just to see if they could do it.

So I think the key is going to be to debate the president on the issue of national security. And I think you will find that he comes up short on national security.

BROWN: Governor, you have a long, long day tomorrow. We appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so very much.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Thanks very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Howard Dean. I'm sure that was the only interview he gave today.

Morning papers are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around at least a small part of the world.

If you're traveling -- I'm traveling, but I'm not traveling abroad. If you're traveling abroad, you may run into "The International Herald Tribune," published in France. I suspect this story will be on the front page of "The New York Times" as well tomorrow. "Kindler, Gentler Cheney Returns to Spotlight" is one of the front-page stories. There are a number of them, of course, but they seem to spotlight that , and a very nice picture of Vice President Cheney and his wife walking in a cemetery in Italy, shot by Scott Applewhite of the AP. Nice job.

Since we're in Atlanta, we might as well do the Atlanta paper. That's the right thing do. And they lead local. "Buckhead Bars Go Underground." Buckhead is an area -- it's a suburb or an area of Atlanta, kind of tony. "Longer Hours Lure Nightspots Downtown" is the lead. Also, "killer Bird Flu Rampant," always a lot of medical stories in the Atlanta paper, because the CDC is here and there is a lot of interest in medical news as well.

"The Dallas Morning News" leads with football. "Unrivaled Moneymaker." The Super Bowl, I hear playing they're going to play that in Texas this week. I think the pregame show has already started, actually. "First, the Playoffs, Then the Payoffs. Unrivaled Moneymaker." The Super Bowl could mean $300 million for Houston, sort of chump change for Bill Gates, but what the heck.

"The Boston Herald." We'll move to politics here. "Eyes on the Prize. Rivals Hope to Knock Out Kerry in New Hampshire Today" is the way "The Boston Herald" leads it.

"The Oregonian" out West, that would be "The Portland Oregonian." "Criticism Flies on Eve of Primary." And pictures of Governor Dean, General Clark, John Edwards, and John Kerry. You don't want to be the one who doesn't get pictured. Also, "FDA Tightens Feed Rules on Cattle" after -- that's the mad cow story we told you about. The mad cow was found -- or the cow with mad cow -- you know what I mean -- was found in Washington state.

One more political one here. "The Dartmouth." "The Dartmouth," that would be newspaper of? Yes, Dartmouth. "Pencils Down" is their headline. I love that headline, with four of the candidates. America's oldest college newspaper. "The Dartmouth" was founded in 1799. Thank you for sending that our way.

"The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review," if I could get my hands on it. "Bush Aide Retreats on WMDs." The White House now is refusing to say Iraq had such weapons.

And we'll end it with "The Chicago Sun-Times." The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "an added insult." That's your "Sun." I'm sorry. I didn't wait for that little goofball sound effect, did I?

That's your morning papers. And we'll take a break and wrap up the day in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick recap of our top story.

Down to the final moments in New Hampshire. They'll actually start voting in some parts of the state in about an hour, the final full day of campaigning today. Iraq and the war were front and center again, all seven candidates making the case in seven different ways that they are the one who could beat George W. Bush. John Kerry still leads in the polls, Howard Dean behind, lots of undecided voters. It is New Hampshire and it will be cold on Election Day. Soledad O'Brien now with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.

Tomorrow, on "AMERICAN MORNING," live from Los Angeles, the Oscar nominations. Who will be in the running for the most coveted award in Hollywood? The Academy makes its selections at 8:30 Eastern. We'll be there before and during and after on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" -- back to you, Aaron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Thank you.

CNN election coverage tomorrow night. We'll see you again Wednesday, weather permitting, from New York.

Good night for all of us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Intelligence Community; Lionel Tate Released>