Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Edwards Out of Presidential Race; Bush to Start Attacking Kerry

Aired March 03, 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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening everyone.
There's a reason they call it Super Tuesday. It has the power after all to make the rest of a primary race all but moot and so it did this time. Technically speaking there are 25 primary races left on the calendar but for all practical purposes the two man race for the presidency began in earnest today with a presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry hitting the campaign trail and the White House already taking aim.

Mr. Kerry, his day, leads the whip tonight and we begin with CNN's Candy Crowley who was with the presumptive nominee all day, Candy a headline please.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, for John Kerry Super Tuesday turned into a pretty regular Wednesday. For John Edwards, Wednesday turned into the end of the trail.

COOPER: All right, Candy back to you.

Another sign the real race has begun the first ads of the Bush- Cheney reelection campaign, John King is at the White House, John a headline from you.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, that multimillion dollar ad campaign begins in the morning. Tonight a new stump speech from the president in which he says Senator Kerry waffles on the big issues, would hurt the economy by raising taxes, and has no plan to win the war on terrorism -- Anderson.

COOPER: Something we're going to be hearing a lot about in the future, I'm sure, John King thanks.

Miguel Marquez is in Portland, the latest city to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Miguel a headline.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's not the only place where there's news. A New York mayor was arraigned today and the gay marriage wave came to Portland, Oregon, this as the Senate holds its first hearing to consider a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage -- Anderson.

COOPER: Miguel, tonight.

A state of emergency in Haiti, Lucia Newman joins us from Port- au-Prince with the headline -- Lucia.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, more than 1,000 U.S. Marines are now patrolling the streets of Haiti to try and restore order while Washington pressures the rebels to hand over their guns.

COOPER: And more Marines to come they say, Lucia thanks, back to all of you shortly.

Also ahead on tonight's program a day of mourning in Iraq. Could an al Qaeda ally be behind the recent bombings?

Later we're off to the world of Disney where CEO Michael Eisner was dealt a stunning blow a short time ago.

And, if you want fries with that you'll have to settle for less, the skinny on McDonald's super size reversal, all that ahead.

We begin with the first day of the rest of the election year. John Kerry woke up today the presumptive Democratic nominee. He had been the undisputed front-runner for weeks of course. But even so, yesterday was pivotal. It was a two man race, now with eight months to go.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): Well, somebody's feeling pretty good.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When the returns came in, I stood up there last night. I knew I was coming to Orlando. My first instinct was to say to everybody guess where I'm going tomorrow. I'm going to Disney World.

CROWLEY: The Senators John went their separate ways Wednesday, one to Florida to carry on, the other to North Carolina to pack it in.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know the truth is all my life America has smiled at me and today I am smiling right back.

CROWLEY: John Edwards left the race with one win and a lot of possibility. He returns to the Senate for the final ten months of his term.

John Kerry follows the calendar, dropping in on primary states that hold contests in coming weeks. On this first day as the man who will be the Democratic nominee, Kerry dialed back the harsher anti- Bush rhetoric. Now he plays to a general election audience.

KERRY: I think there are reasonable Republicans out there who know that there's nothing conservative or mainstream Republican about what George Bush is doing with the deficits of this country. There's nothing conservative or mainstream Republican about letting your attorney general abuse civil rights. CROWLEY: Kerry's strategists are moving to insert the candidate's influence into the party structure. The convention and the DNC are not separate entities now so much as vehicles for a Kerry victory.

On the fund-raising front, the campaign says it picked up 1,500 volunteers and $1.2 million since polls closed Tuesday night and he'll be needing a number two. Kerry has asked a long time friend and Washington businessman to run the search for a vice president. Kerry says it will be a private personal choice around which there will be a lot of public speculation.

EDWARDS: I want to say a word about a man who is a friend of mine, somebody who I believe has great strength and great courage my friend Senator John Kerry.

CROWLEY: Maybe the Senators John will cross paths again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: By far the biggest problem John Kerry may have in the coming weeks is keeping the spotlight on his campaign. For the last six weeks it has been headline news, the Democratic nomination process. Now Kerry is going to have to find a way to make news all by himself -- Anderson.

COOPER: He certainly is at that and he's also going to have to deal with all those ads and there's a lot of money for Republican ads. How much money do we know does John Kerry have and does he have any sort of big ad campaign about to unroll as well?

CROWLEY: He doesn't have an ad campaign about to unroll. Right now they're going to satisfy themselves with responding. They are kind of the press releases in the Kerry campaign so they're going to respond now by pushing back every time they see a Bush ad.

As far as the money goes they are beginning to set up their fund- raising. They really think they're going to have a lot of problems with that. For instance, both the DNC and Moveon.org have begun big pushes to get people to contribute to the Kerry campaign.

They're also setting up their own kind of infrastructure. They're not all that worried because, I don't know if you remember but Kerry did not agree to take federal funding, so he can spend as much as he wants as long as he can raise it, so they're not all that worried about that. Having said that they also say they're never going to have as much as George Bush has on hand.

COOPER: All right. It's going to be a big money race no matter what. Candy Crowley thanks for that.

Today marked a turning point for the White House as well. Super Tuesday has given the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign a clear target. Tomorrow the incumbents launch their first television campaign ads. Today the president made his case informally.

CNN's White House Correspondent John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): A new day in the presidential campaign and an immediate effort to frame the choice.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He spent two decades in Congress. He's built up quite a record. In fact, Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

KING: And in TV commercials a message that the incumbent is the right man for the challenges still ahead.

BUSH: I know exactly where I want to lead this country. I know what we need to do to make the world more free and more peaceful.

KING: The first ads of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign portray a president forced to deal with recession then terrorism, images of September 11 meant to remind voters of the first term's biggest test.

ANNOUNCER: But America rose to the challenge.

KING: Mr. Bush talked of a spirited race in a call to congratulate Senator Kerry Tuesday night and by early Wednesday the president's allies opened the effort to paint the Massachusetts Democrat as an elitist liberal bent on raising taxes.

REP. TOM DELAY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: He's either insincere about his new spending, dishonest about his new taxes, uninterested in the deficit or they just didn't teach him arithmetic at the European boarding school that he went to.

KING: The president trails Senator Kerry in national polls, his immediate short term goal to revitalize his standing now that the Democratic campaign is all but over.

ED GILLESPIE, RNC CHAIRMAN: Understand that the Democratic candidates in their primary have aired $17 million in attack ads against the president over the course of the past six months.

KING: Mr. Bush is upbeat about his chances but sees Senator Kerry as a tenacious foe, crediting him with fighting back when it looked like he would fall early in the Democratic race.

But in studying the Senators record and campaign statements, the president sees himself as a decisive leader and his opponent as indecisive, someone who zigs and zags on major issues and who gives meandering answers when asked about major challenges.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: The election still eight months away but tonight proof that the early jabbing will be quite intense. The president unveiling a new stump speech in which he went right after Senator Kerry saying he would hurt the economy by raising taxes.

He said perhaps he would portray America as too weak in the world and encourage America's enemies. He said he stood both ways when it came to the war in Iraq and, Anderson, again President Bush says Senator Kerry has no plan to end the war on terrorism.

COOPER: John, you mentioned the jabbing as it begun against Kerry but is it going to be televised? I mean in these new ads are there attacks on Kerry or is he even mentioned or is it more sort of setting the stage for the president?

KING: Right now it's setting the stage for future cards. The president did it in his speech tonight saying Senator Kerry in his view has voted every way on every major issue.

The president is trying to boost his own approval rating first and to reestablish what the White House believes is his greatest strength. You might disagree with some of his decisions but the White House believes they can portray the president as a decisive leader and Senator Kerry as indecisive.

That will be the key challenge for the White House in a race they say simply there will be fights over the economy, fights over taxes, fights over the war on terrorism. Most White House aides believe it will come down to one word leadership and who the American people choose.

COOPER: They're spending a couple million on these commercials but they have already spent some $40 million $41 million depending on who you believe of the $140 million or so on infrastructure. How important is infrastructure to the Republicans going to be?

KING: Infrastructure is quite important. Remember last time Florida was decided by 530-something votes. New Mexico was decided by 530-something votes. The president thought he would do better in Pennsylvania but union turnout overwhelmed the Republican effort.

Most of that money has been spent on an early grassroots organization, getting index cards, getting computer files, identifying voters and putting people in place who come Election Day have one simple job. Make sure they vote.

COOPER: All right, John King thanks very much at the White House.

And so it begins. There could be surprises between now and November, of course, and there no doubt will be and there are still the unknowns, including who will share the ticket with John Kerry and how exactly will the candidates make their cases and their attacks? But as much as today marks a new phase of the race the broad outlines of what might lie ahead were drawn months ago.

Here's CNN's Senior Analyst Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): So now we know as early as we ever have, months before the vote that the next president will be one of these two men.

KERRY: Change is coming to America.

BUSH: We'll leave no doubt where we stand.

GREENFIELD: Sometime in the next four months, perhaps earlier than ever before, we will learn who the running mate will be.

BUSH: I know exactly where I want to lead this country.

GREENFIELD: And as early as tomorrow when a $4.5 million ad campaign begins we'll learn how the president intends to state his case for reelection.

(on camera): But even at this early stage we already know a lot about the premises of each campaign and about their strengths and weaknesses. How do we know this, because the candidates and the voters have already told us.

ANNOUNCER: What sees us through tough times?

GREENFIELD (voice-over): President Bush intends to run as the leader who made the tough decisions defending America at war, the president who faced a world turned upside down on that September 11 and struck hard at our enemies.

BUSH: It is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers.

GREENFIELD: And he intends to draw a sharp contrast between his own decisiveness and an opponent who is by turns a waffler, someone who does not understand this dangerous world.

On the home front Bush says, as he did back in 2000 that the choices between a candidate who trusts the people and a candidate who does not.

BUSH: It's the same old Washington mind set. They'll give the orders and you'll pay the bills.

GREENFIELD: The poll numbers provide both encouraging and discouraging news for the Bush campaign. His job approval rating is down to 51 percent, a danger zone for any president and while the public still regards Bush as a strong and decisive leader they also show a public that sees Bush favoring the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class.

KERRY: There are also millions of Americans who are hurt by the policies that favor the few.

GREENFIELD: Clearly, Senator Kerry means to make that perception of Bush a central theme of his campaign but he also must deal with two potential weaknesses. First, the idea that he votes against the first Gulf War, his votes to cut defense and intelligence spending in years past mark him as a man who did not grasp the dangers this country faced.

KERRY: We will renew our alliances and we will build new alliances because they are essential to the final victory and success of a war on terror.

GREENFIELD: Second, the idea that Kerry is a wealthy patrician Boston (unintelligible) distant from the values and the concerns of the broad middle class. In his speech Tuesday night, Kerry often used the language of optimism and patriotism.

KERRY: Our campaign is about replacing doubt with hope and replacing fear with security.

GREENFIELD (on camera): If there's one word that may well define this entire election it is the word change. The Kerry campaign means that word as a promise, a change they say from unfair taxes, reckless spending and a dangerous foreign policy.

The Bush campaign means that word as a threat. We dare not change, they say, to a president who understands neither the country nor its citizens nor the dangers that lurk in the world beyond our borders.

But one change is certain. Four years after an election many called the Seinfeld campaign, an election about nothing, this one is shaping up as an election where really big things are on the line.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Another big thing on the line a blockbuster story in the business world. Walt Disney Company said today that it was splitting the chairman and chief executive officer jobs, a major blow to Michael Eisner who has held both titles for nearly 20 years now.

Under the new arrangement, Mr. Eisner will remain CEO but the chairman's title goes to company director George Mitchell. The board's decision came after shareholders earlier today delivered a huge vote of no confidence in Mr. Eisner withholding about 43 percent of votes for his reelection to the board at the company's annual meeting.

The number of shares withheld was higher than many had expected and represented a victory for former board members Stanley Gold and Roy E. Disney who have been leading a shareholder revolt against Mr. Eisner. Kim Masters from National Public Radio joins us later on on NEWSNIGHT to talk about the split as well as the company's future.

Also ahead tonight on NEWSNIGHT the future for the 9/11 commission, I'll talk with a member.

Also on the streets of Baghdad one day after devastating attacks, we'll go there.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well it goes without saying that the debate over gay marriage will shape the presidential election ahead but in a number of cities and states the horse is already out of the barn. And across the country, even as the legal challenges pile up, more barn doors are opening, including some today.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you enter a plea at this time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Your Honor, we'd like to enter a plea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Jason West, Mayor of New Paltz, New York pleads not guilty to 19 counts of solemnizing marriages without a license after he conducted same-sex ceremonies last week. He says the misdemeanor charges, which could send him to jail will not deter him from allowing gays to marry.

MAYOR JASON WEST, NEW PALTZ, NEW YORK: The issue before us today is one of civil rights. It's one of human rights. It's an issue of basic human decency.

MARQUEZ: And undeterred by the charges the openly gay mayor of Nyack, New York announced that he would begin allowing same-sex marriages too. New York's attorney general concluded that even though there may be room in the Constitution to allow for gay marriage right now the law says they are illegal.

ELIOT SPITZER, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today's opinion concludes that New York State statutes do not permit same-sex marriages.

MARQUEZ: A continent away in Portland, Oregon the county attorney says that state's constitution guarantees equal protection for homosexual, so she opened up the doors to gay marriage. Hundreds of same-sex couples lined up to apply. More than 300 licenses were granted.

JOHN DOYLE: I'm not making a political statement. I'm just saying I'm a citizen and I love this man and I want to have the same legal protections as heterosexual couples.

MARQUEZ: Oregon's governor says the county attorney moved too quickly and without public oversight deciding to grant the licenses. He says that the Oregon law defining marriage may have been written long ago but he believes it does not allow for gay marriage today.

GOV. TED KULONGOSKI (D), OREGON: At the time of the history of when the statute was written I think that it's clear that they were thinking about a man and woman getting married.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now a spokesperson for the attorney general here in Oregon says that the law regarding gay marriage is ambiguous at best.

And in Washington, D.C. the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist put it this way. "We are gambling with our future if we allow activist judges to redefine marriage for the whole society" -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Miguel Marquez thanks very much.

Some other stories from around the nation to tell you about right now, to Philadelphia we go. Carolyn Correa, the woman who allegedly set a fire and kidnapped a 10-day-old girl, turned herself into police and is now awaiting arraignment. A lot of questions still remain about what happened that December night in 1997. Her lawyer says Ms. Correa is convinced the child was hers.

In Houston, a jury convicted Susan Wright of murdering her husband Jeffrey by stabbing him 193 times. Wright had claimed self defense. Ms. Wright portrayed herself in testimony as the victim of a hateful sadistic relationship that spanned many years.

And in Phoenix where police discovered nearly 200 illegal immigrants inside an upscale property, about 100 to 150 people were inside the south Phoenix home and an additional 20 to 30 people were in a guest house on the same property. Officers went to the home after getting a call from a neighbor about suspicious activity.

Well the House of Representatives today approved a 60-day extension the 9/11 commission says it needs to complete its work. The vote is a major step toward making the extension law.

Richard Ben-Veniste is a member of the commission and he joins us now. Thanks for being with us, appreciate it.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION: Sure.

COOPER: The administration has said that they want to cooperate fully with this commission, are they?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, there have been some bumps in the road, which has taken time away from our straight ahead business but I think we're on a track now where we can complete and we can do a job that the public can be proud of.

COOPER: You talk about bumps in the road. I guess the big one that I guess that was resolved today was this extension. The extension is now to July 26. How important is it, was it to get that extension?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, that's the last of the bumps in the road we've had. It was important.

COOPER: There are still more to come (unintelligible). BEN-VENISTE: Well there were several before in terms of getting materials, getting them on time. We had to issue subpoenas. That's been a long and ongoing story. But I think we're now in a posture where we can have some very important hearings.

We've looked at two million pages of documents, conducted over 1,000 interviews. We have an extraordinary, hardworking staff of 60 full time people who have done a fabulous job.

COOPER: But the big interviews that you want to get, the president and the vice president, you're not getting the kind of cooperation I think it's fair to say that you would like.

The president and vice president have made themselves available -- they will make themselves available apparently only for one hour and not to the full commission. You will not get to question them. They will only meet with the two heads of the commission, why?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, that's the current posture and we're hopeful that they'll reassess and change. President Clinton and former Vice President Gore, of course, have agreed to meet with the commission as a whole and without reservation.

And so, we're hopeful that the president and vice president will do so as well. Three thousand people were murdered on September 11, 2001 in the worst atrocity in American history on our homeland.

COOPER: What are you hearing though...

BEN-VENISTE: Many people think that the president could be a little more generous with his time. I think that would be the right thing to do.

COOPER: What are you hearing from the White House about why they will not give you more time?

BEN-VENISTE: They have not specified to my knowledge.

COOPER: Condoleezza Rice, who has testified behind closed doors in front of the commission, you were pressing for a public testimony by her. The White House has really on legislative grounds they say or procedural grounds refused. Why is it so important to you and the other commission members to have a public hearing?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, again, the consensus of the commission, which is a bipartisan ten-member commission, was to invite Dr. Rice to appear publicly. We think she has important information.

It is an appropriate setting to provide that information. She has answered questions in press conferences and made public statements about 9/11 before and we think it would be appropriate for her to come.

COOPER: Is there something though you expect to hear publicly that you've not heard privately? It would seem to be the reverse. I mean... BEN-VENISTE: Well, certainly there are things in the private session of a national security nature, which would be inappropriate.

COOPER: Right.

BEN-VENISTE: But by and large there are other people who are testifying, the former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, former secretary of state and former Secretary of Defense Madeleine Albright and William Cohen as well as the present secretary of state and the present secretary of defense will all be testifying at the same hearing that Dr. Rice was invited to.

COOPER: But you have no way really of making the president or the vice president testify, I mean if they continue their stance? Other than sort of publicly asking them to reconsider there's no mechanism to make them do it.

BEN-VENISTE: Right now we're asking them to meet with the whole commission and to provide a little more time than they have agreed to provide so far.

COOPER: Is there anything you could do though to make them come after that?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I think there are decisions, as we have seen with the Speaker of the House Hastert which on reflection have been revised over time. The president opposed the creation of the commission. He changed his mind about that. He opposed giving us more time. He changed his mind about that. We are hopeful that on reflection he will change his mind about this as well.

COOPER: I'll let it go at that. Richard Ben-Veniste thanks very much for coming.

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

COOPER: Appreciate it.

Well coming up on NEWSNIGHT, a state of emergency in Haiti. Lucia Newman will join us live with the latest.

Then a little bit later possible Kingdom Coup, the latest on the trouble at Disney.

And super size me no longer, one filmmaker who ate only McDonald's for a month and surprisingly he lived to talk about it, his thoughts on the downsizing of the super size.

On CNN this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We go to Iraq now and a day of mourning. After yesterday's bombings targeting Shiite worshipers in Karbala and Baghdad the death toll from the attacks varies widely. Coalition sources place the number at 117, while the Iraq Governing Council says as many as 271 were killed. And, as Jane Arraf reports, U.S. officials think they have a good idea who is responsible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): These young men whipping themselves in grief made their way towards the (unintelligible) mosque in Baghdad but the sacred site was closed. More than 30 people were killed there Tuesday and only those accompanying the dead were allowed in.

In Baghdad and in the holy city of Karbala, some of the more than 130 people killed in coordinated attacks were buried. This funeral for 18-year-old (unintelligible) killed in (unintelligible) like others considered a martyr.

In the street leading to the Baghdad shrine tight security as radical Shia cleric (unintelligible) called a demonstration for unity. "Yes to unity, no to the United States" they chanted.

"Now the real settling of scores has started" said (unintelligible). "Americans and no one else will pay for each drop of blood falling from a Shia, an Iraqi, because America is responsible for this."

Many said the U.S. should hand military control to the Shia authorities and their militias. There were no American soldiers to be seen on the ground but they made their presence known in the air.

Religious leaders also blamed the United States for letting the attack happen.

"The first reason for these massacres is the fact that the coalition forces are using wrong policies when it comes to security" said the head of a major Shia party. His party, like others, has its own militia which the U.S. has forced to disband. A revered Shia cleric blamed the U.S. for not securing the country's borders.

(on camera): U.S. officials say they believe at least some of the suspects in the Karbala bombing may have come across the Iranian border with a wave of religious pilgrims. The prime suspect they say continues to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the fugitive thought to be affiliated with al Qaeda but believed to operate independently from that organization.

(voice-over): Political parties opened their offices for formal mourning. In these halls of grieving and angry men, many said they believed Zarqawi, backed by Saddam loyalists, was responsible, but they had more resolve than ever to take control of their own security.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: In nature, vacuums fill up in a flash. In politics, that doesn't always happen. And the result is generally chaos, which brings us to Haiti and the virtual political vacuum there. Today, the prime minister declared a state of emergency even as a rebel leader backed down.

CNN's Lucia Newman has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How fast things change in Haiti. Wednesday morning, it was the U.S. Marines who were calling the shots at the very same place where the day before Haitian insurgents had set up their headquarters and declared themselves in command of the streets. So was almost everyone else when rebel commander Guy Philippe announced he and his men were laying down their weapons. Trying to save face, he explained his about-face.

GUY PHILIPPE, REBEL COMMANDER: This morning I had a meeting with the general here, the American general, and he assures that his troops will take care of the people's security.

NEWMAN: Philippe says he and his men, now no longer so visible, are awaiting orders from Haiti's interim president to hand in their weapons. Intense pressure from Washington apparently having forced his hand.

The Marines patrol downtown, while just a few blocks away, Haitian police were fired on and shot back. It is not clear by whom, but armed rebels loyal to Haiti's former president are still at large. And the power vacuum left by Aristide's departure is making Haiti more unstable by the day, with the former opposition demanding a new prime minister and government be named immediately.

CHARLES BAKER, DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM: When you're being attacked, nothing is ever fast enough. Go downtown and see the chaos and the pillage. And, I mean, we have lost over $100 million.

NEWMAN (on camera): If you ask most Haitians what's the most urgent thing right now, they will say security. The responsibility for that now falls squarely on the soldiers of the U.S. Marines and other international peacekeepers, a daunting task at that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: And, Anderson, the situation is even more complicated now. The still prime minister of this country, who was appointed by the former president, but who is still in his office, has declared, he says, a state of emergency and is naming a special counsel to oversee security here.

But it's not quite clear how he's going to enforce any kind of emergency since the new police chief no longer answers to him, but to the new interim president -- Anderson.

COOPER: Lucia, so Guy Philippe says he's going to be laying down his weapons. What about one of the other rebel leaders, Chamblain?

NEWMAN: Well, he is supposed to be under the command of Guy Philippe. Chamblain is supposed to be a soldier. He is supposed to obey the higher command. That's what they're saying. We'll have to see if they really do -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, certainly a lot of guns in the country. Lucia Newman, thanks very much.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, inside the family feud at Disney.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We told you earlier about the shakeup at Disney, but Michael Eisner's troubles had been building for quite some time. In addition to the internal shareholder revolt, he's also been fighting off a takeoff attempt.

National Public Radio's Kim Masters has covered Mr. Eisner throughout it all as a magazine columnist and author of the book "The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else," a great title, that. Ms. Master joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.

Thanks for being with us, Kim.

Let's first talk about what this means in terms of shareholders. This separation now of Michael Eisner of the job of CEO and chairman, how significant -- will this be enough to stomp the shareholder revolt?

KIM MASTERS, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: No.

You have a situation where George Mitchell, who is now the chairman of the Walt Disney Company, had a 24 percent no-confidence vote today, which, in the absence of the 43 percent vote against Michael Eisner, would normally be remarkable in and of itself. So I think that it's -- without even hearing what Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, the two dissident shareholders, former board members, who starting this have to say, it will be that this is not enough.

COOPER: Where does it go from here, then?

MASTERS: Well, you know, what Roy Disney and Stanley gold said today is that they are not going away, and they will continue this fight.

I think that, unless the Disney board can follow this up with a signal that they intend to do another step and that this isn't it, I think there will be a continued turmoil. And I think Disney will sort of continue to bleed into the water, as it's been doing since November, when Roy Disney was thrown off the board.

COOPER: The other staff, they're talking about being what? What options are open to them?

MASTERS: Well, it was very clear from not only what Stanley Gold and Roy Disney said, but what many of the public pension funds that said they would vote against Mr. Eisner and the shareholder advisory groups that said they should vote against Mr. Eisner.

They wanted to make this very clear. This was a referendum on Michael Eisner. This wasn't something about splitting the two jobs. This was, we do not want Michael Eisner running this company. And everyone knows that Michael Eisner is a very hands-on chief executive and having his friend and longtime ally George Mitchell nominally as chairman of the board isn't going to change a thing.

COOPER: And what does this change in terms of the takeover attempt by Comcast, if anything?

MASTERS: Well, I think that Comcast has obviously reiterated that it has an offer on the table today. Disney was swift to reject it.

The shareholders are, I think, based on their reaction at the shareholder meeting today, not hugely receptive to this offer. But if it's substantially sweetened, I think a lot of the larger shareholders will take a look, if Disney doesn't show that it's going to do something about its governance.

COOPER: And for those who haven't been following this story as closely as others have, what is the essential problem, for those who believe there is a problem with Michael Eisner? I mean, how much of it is personal and how much it is the way he has run the company?

MASTERS: Michael Eisner is a very charming man.

He was showing his charm today at the shareholder meeting. You almost wished you had seen more of it in the last few years. The stock has underperformed for a number of years now. And then, starting in November, there was like a one, two, three punch. They started out by throwing Roy Disney off the board, I think completely miscalculating what that name and that face, which so much resembles Walt, means to shareholders, a lot of the individual shareholders who are part of the Disney ownership.

They then lost their relationship with Pixar, which has been a huge fountain of animation hits, including "Finding Nemo" this summer, which is particularly frightening at a time when Disney's animation has performed poorly. And, finally, then the Comcast offer. And when you have this kind of turmoil and sense of shareholder discontent and nobody knows quite what's coming next, you make the stock vulnerable to a downward trend. You make the company vulnerable to a takeover.

I would think, if I were on the board now, I'd be nervous about shareholders suing and complaining about the way I'm running the company.

COOPER: What is Roy Disney, though, selling? I've talked to some people who said, look, if Roy Disney was still running the place, they'd be doing "Cinderella" two and three. He doesn't have much of a unique vision to bring the company into the future.

MASTERS: I'm not sure that Roy positions himself as saying, I have the vision to run this company.

I think that what he is saying is that Michael Eisner doesn't and there needs to be a change. And I think, with the 43 percent vote today, that shows that 43 percent of those owners of the company agree with him. He is selling the Disney experience. These people connect to what they call the magic. All day long at the shareholder meeting, these people would stand up and say, I have a few shares. I want the magic back. They feel that Disney has really lost its way.

COOPER: All right, Kim Masters, you've been covering it for a long time. Appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks.

MASTERS: Thank you.

COOPER: A quick look at some other stories making headlines, before we go to break.

Former WorldCom chairman Bernie Ebbers pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired with the company's ex-chief financial officer to commit the biggest corporate fraud in American history.

The fate of Martha Stewart is now in the hands of a jury. Jurors made two requests to review large amounts of evidence from the trial, but ended the day without reaching a verdict. They are set to return tomorrow morning.

And finally, to the stock market, where mixed economic reports led to a relatively flat day for the Dow and S&P. The Nasdaq was slightly lower.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, it looks like Ronald Reagan -- excuse me -- Ronald McDonald is watching his weight, living large, gets a makeover. That is coming up.

And bringing art and fashion to life one snapshot at a time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: When McDonald's said today it will downsize by the end of the year, many nutritionists cheered.

The world's largest fast-food company isn't cutting workers. It's giving the ax to supersized food, getting rid of the giant-sized fries and colossal sodas, it says, to please health-minded customers. A spokesperson said today the decision has nothing to do with a new documentary film called "Super Size Me," which is yet to be released. The film is about what happened when you eat too much McDonald's.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock was his own research subject. For 30 days, he followed his a supersized diet. The results, he says, weren't pretty or healthy.

He joins us now. Morgan, good to see you alive and well.

MORGAN SPURLOCK, FILMMAKER, "SUPER SIZE ME": Thanks for having me.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Explain to viewers. You ate McDonald's food three times a day for 30 days. Is that correct?

SPURLOCK: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, three squares a day for a month, yes. And, believe me, it wasn't pretty.

COOPER: What impact did it have on your body and how quickly did you notice that impact?

SPURLOCK: It was very quickly. Over the course of a couple weeks, apart from gaining weight, my cholesterol skyrocketed. My liver turned to fat. My glycerides, my blood pressure, everything just went haywire. And the doctors were dumbfounded. Everybody couldn't believe what was happening to my body. And it got really scary.

COOPER: Are you sad in any way to see the supersize go?

(LAUGHTER)

SPURLOCK: I think I'm far from sad to see the supersize go.

For me, in making the film, the film is a big examination of the whole obesity epidemic in America. And people can get more information at supersizeme.com, if they would like.

But for us, it was an examination of both personal responsibility and corporate responsibility. And in light of what's happening right now, the changes that they've now announced getting rid of supersize portions, you can't help but acknowledge that they're saying, you know what, we do have corporate responsibility to this problem. And they're changing that.

COOPER: You're a young struggling filmmaker, so I'm going to allow you that one free plug, all right? But that was it.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: Do you think the changing and the elimination of these supersized meals, will that in any way change the appeal of McDonald's to its customers?

SPURLOCK: I don't think it's going to change the appeal. Believe me, I still love cheeseburgers. I love cheeseburgers as much as the next guy.

But I think that it will start to turn the tide. Now we're seeing that corporations are saying, you know what, we do play a part in this obesity epidemic. We do play a part in making change. It is a small change. It's a small little piece. This isn't the solution, but it's a step in the right direction.

But on the same side, people also have to look at themselves and say, you know what, there's personal responsibility. I have to think about what I'm buying when I go in here. Do I need the large? You've got to think, the supersize is gone, but they've still got a 32-ounce soda that they're serving. That's a quart, a quart of soda.

COOPER: Well, what does it feel like to eat McDonald's food three times a day? I'm known to eat a fair amount of McDonald's food in my life, but not quite to the extreme you have taken it. Did you start to crave it or did you start to just get repulsed by it?

SPURLOCK: See, no, well, the thing is, as the diet went on and on, the more that I ate, the more that I wanted it.

I would eat the food, and, a couple of hours later, I would want it again. My body was just dying for nutrients that I wasn't getting from their food. This food is really stripped of a lot of nutritional value. And so the more you eat, the more you want. It was very overwhelming for me.

COOPER: And yet, at a certain point, is it -- eating like too many french fries, I imagine, at some point, you just can't stand the smell of them any longer? Did you ever reach that point or were there enough supersized meals to go around?

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: Yes, by the end of it -- because that's all they serve is french fries. And that's part of my whole beef with them as well is, give me a choice. Why do I only get french fries or french fries?

By the end, I couldn't even eat them. They tasted like smoked plastic. They tasted like such a nonfood to me, it was disgusting.

COOPER: Do you still eat McDonald's food?

SPURLOCK: Do I still eat McDonald's food?

COOPER: Yes.

SPURLOCK: No. I abstain.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: There's much better places to get cheeseburgers.

COOPER: How long did it take your body to recover?

SPURLOCK: All my body functions came back to normal in about eight weeks. It took me about five months to lose 20 pounds. I gained 24 1/2 in the whole month. And I still haven't lost the last 4 1/2. I'm trying, though, man. I'm fighting for it.

COOPER: What do you think it is about Americans, about the culture at large that has so embraced this supersize concept? Because you see it in just about everything now. Everything seems sort of larger.

SPURLOCK: Everything's bigger, from the cars to the food to the people. We want more for less. And it's not just about the supersizing. It's just about value. We want to know that we're getting more for less.

You and I grew up in a time when pocketbooks were tight and mom was like squeezing the pennies as much as we could. So, when you start thinking that, wow, I'm going to get a value, and it's been instilled in your mind to get as much value as you can, you go for the value, whether that's at a McDonald's or a Burger King, wherever.

See, for me, it wasn't like I was coming out to attack McDonald's. It's much more of an examination of the fast-food culture that has really enveloped our society. Fast food is everywhere. Fast-service restaurants are everywhere. It's in our schools now. Our kids are now eating fast food in schools. And it's really frightening.

COOPER: All right, Morgan Spurlock. The film is "Super Size Me." I appreciate you joining us on NEWSNIGHT tonight. Thanks.

SPURLOCK: Anderson, thanks for having me.

COOPER: All right, a pretty unique experiment.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, behind the lens, our latest look at the art of still photography.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Regular viewers of NEWSNIGHT know we have a thing for still photographs and their power to communicate. But every photograph is silent on the subject of how it got to be. Tonight, we peek behind the veil.

For fashion photographer Douglas Dubler, the process of make a photograph is a passion. We recently sat with him. On the other side of his lens, a $200,000 pearl necklace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOUGLAS DUBLER, FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER: What I do is beauty photography for the most part, not so much fashion, more beauty.

And what I attempt to do is to try and make these images be more timeless than fashion pictures. My art is creating what it is that I'm going to capture. So that begins with conceptualization, coming up a concept for what it is that you're going to do and then producing and executing that concept. What we're going to do today with these -- we've got this nice, this $200,000 pearl necklace, and the bustier with the -- so, it's going to be some very interesting -- did Sylvia (ph) explain to you about the makeup, what we're doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

DUBLER: We're shooting an ad for Calila (ph) and Ella Gafter, Ella gems, a very, very high-end jewelry client of mine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this is good. We're not touching it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is very good.

(LAUGHTER)

DUBLER: I may have $40,000 or $50,000 or maybe $100,000 at stake in the day of a production value there.

So, Walter (ph), you understand exactly what I want in terms of how we want that set up? Yes.

Everything that I do is very much a teamwork enterprise. It's not me thinking up and executing these things. I couldn't do this by myself.

And I got the highlights and the pearls to continue.

Since I'm shooting pearls here, I thought a good metaphor would be to have, as a pearl is layered, to have layers in the image there.

Beautiful. I love that. Hold it right there.

I've made sort of a bustier for the model, and it sort of looks like a shell that the pearl comes out of it. And she is coming out of that shell.

Don't move.

Good, good, good, good. Yes, yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The background is fine, right?

DUBLER: Yes, let's get that up on the screen right over here, OK, please?

The major advantage for me as an artist, it is in working with digital technology.

Beautiful, dear. Here we go.

I can observe what it is that I'm doing and have the opportunity to make changes and corrections in midstream.

Give me -- on the pack, Don, give me two-tenths. In the course of the day's work, when we're shooting, the client will be very much involved with this and say, oh, I like that, I don't like this.

Yes, yes, yes. But chin up a little bit more, chip up, yes, even more, even more. Chin up.

When we are finished the day's work there, there will be no guessing in terms as to what we have in terms of our final product.

Can you see? Can you see? Go, go, go. Go back to that.

I hope that the images that I produce that people look at cause people to stop and sort of think about what they're looking at visually, have it stimulate them, have it bring up some questions in their mind.

That position is great right there, right where you are. Yes, yes.

I only do the work that I do because I get gratification out of it. I get satisfaction out of it. It's what makes me get up each day and be excited about what I'm going to do for the day, because every day is different.

That's great. That's great. Here we go, dear. It's fabulous, dear, fabulous. Yes, this is good. This is good. This is good.

Many times, I'm shooting and I'm shooting digitally, the picture comes up there on the monitor, I know that's the picture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the push for the White House, we'll have an update on our top story, plus, a look at what's on the program tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A quick recap of our top story, Super Tuesday, the day after.

It's now a two-man race for the presidency with eight months to go. The presumptive Democratic candidate, John Kerry, hit the campaign trail today, his first stop, Florida. Tomorrow, the ad wars begin. The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign will launch its first television ads to the tune of more than $4 million the same day that the liberal grassroots group MoveOn.org begins a five-day advertising campaign attacking President Bush, the price for that, just under $2 million.

Tomorrow night on NEWSNIGHT, the often deadly practice of human smuggling. We'll take a look at Operation Ice Storm, a program designed to crack down on that crime. That is tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Before we go, here's Soledad O'Brien with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," a woman on trial for stabbing her husband 193 times in their bed, a wild scene in the court when prosecutors presented a graphic reenactment of what they think happened. How will that influence the jury? We're going to talk with a reporter who's been following the case on "AMERICAN MORNING." That's CNN tomorrow, 7:00 a.m. -- back to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Thanks very much, Soledad, a remarkable trial.

That's it for NEWSNIGHT tonight. I'll be back tomorrow night. And you can also catch me tomorrow on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" at 7:00 Eastern time.

Thanks for watching. Good night.

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





Kerry>


Aired March 3, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening everyone.
There's a reason they call it Super Tuesday. It has the power after all to make the rest of a primary race all but moot and so it did this time. Technically speaking there are 25 primary races left on the calendar but for all practical purposes the two man race for the presidency began in earnest today with a presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry hitting the campaign trail and the White House already taking aim.

Mr. Kerry, his day, leads the whip tonight and we begin with CNN's Candy Crowley who was with the presumptive nominee all day, Candy a headline please.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, for John Kerry Super Tuesday turned into a pretty regular Wednesday. For John Edwards, Wednesday turned into the end of the trail.

COOPER: All right, Candy back to you.

Another sign the real race has begun the first ads of the Bush- Cheney reelection campaign, John King is at the White House, John a headline from you.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, that multimillion dollar ad campaign begins in the morning. Tonight a new stump speech from the president in which he says Senator Kerry waffles on the big issues, would hurt the economy by raising taxes, and has no plan to win the war on terrorism -- Anderson.

COOPER: Something we're going to be hearing a lot about in the future, I'm sure, John King thanks.

Miguel Marquez is in Portland, the latest city to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Miguel a headline.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's not the only place where there's news. A New York mayor was arraigned today and the gay marriage wave came to Portland, Oregon, this as the Senate holds its first hearing to consider a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage -- Anderson.

COOPER: Miguel, tonight.

A state of emergency in Haiti, Lucia Newman joins us from Port- au-Prince with the headline -- Lucia.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, more than 1,000 U.S. Marines are now patrolling the streets of Haiti to try and restore order while Washington pressures the rebels to hand over their guns.

COOPER: And more Marines to come they say, Lucia thanks, back to all of you shortly.

Also ahead on tonight's program a day of mourning in Iraq. Could an al Qaeda ally be behind the recent bombings?

Later we're off to the world of Disney where CEO Michael Eisner was dealt a stunning blow a short time ago.

And, if you want fries with that you'll have to settle for less, the skinny on McDonald's super size reversal, all that ahead.

We begin with the first day of the rest of the election year. John Kerry woke up today the presumptive Democratic nominee. He had been the undisputed front-runner for weeks of course. But even so, yesterday was pivotal. It was a two man race, now with eight months to go.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): Well, somebody's feeling pretty good.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When the returns came in, I stood up there last night. I knew I was coming to Orlando. My first instinct was to say to everybody guess where I'm going tomorrow. I'm going to Disney World.

CROWLEY: The Senators John went their separate ways Wednesday, one to Florida to carry on, the other to North Carolina to pack it in.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know the truth is all my life America has smiled at me and today I am smiling right back.

CROWLEY: John Edwards left the race with one win and a lot of possibility. He returns to the Senate for the final ten months of his term.

John Kerry follows the calendar, dropping in on primary states that hold contests in coming weeks. On this first day as the man who will be the Democratic nominee, Kerry dialed back the harsher anti- Bush rhetoric. Now he plays to a general election audience.

KERRY: I think there are reasonable Republicans out there who know that there's nothing conservative or mainstream Republican about what George Bush is doing with the deficits of this country. There's nothing conservative or mainstream Republican about letting your attorney general abuse civil rights. CROWLEY: Kerry's strategists are moving to insert the candidate's influence into the party structure. The convention and the DNC are not separate entities now so much as vehicles for a Kerry victory.

On the fund-raising front, the campaign says it picked up 1,500 volunteers and $1.2 million since polls closed Tuesday night and he'll be needing a number two. Kerry has asked a long time friend and Washington businessman to run the search for a vice president. Kerry says it will be a private personal choice around which there will be a lot of public speculation.

EDWARDS: I want to say a word about a man who is a friend of mine, somebody who I believe has great strength and great courage my friend Senator John Kerry.

CROWLEY: Maybe the Senators John will cross paths again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: By far the biggest problem John Kerry may have in the coming weeks is keeping the spotlight on his campaign. For the last six weeks it has been headline news, the Democratic nomination process. Now Kerry is going to have to find a way to make news all by himself -- Anderson.

COOPER: He certainly is at that and he's also going to have to deal with all those ads and there's a lot of money for Republican ads. How much money do we know does John Kerry have and does he have any sort of big ad campaign about to unroll as well?

CROWLEY: He doesn't have an ad campaign about to unroll. Right now they're going to satisfy themselves with responding. They are kind of the press releases in the Kerry campaign so they're going to respond now by pushing back every time they see a Bush ad.

As far as the money goes they are beginning to set up their fund- raising. They really think they're going to have a lot of problems with that. For instance, both the DNC and Moveon.org have begun big pushes to get people to contribute to the Kerry campaign.

They're also setting up their own kind of infrastructure. They're not all that worried because, I don't know if you remember but Kerry did not agree to take federal funding, so he can spend as much as he wants as long as he can raise it, so they're not all that worried about that. Having said that they also say they're never going to have as much as George Bush has on hand.

COOPER: All right. It's going to be a big money race no matter what. Candy Crowley thanks for that.

Today marked a turning point for the White House as well. Super Tuesday has given the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign a clear target. Tomorrow the incumbents launch their first television campaign ads. Today the president made his case informally.

CNN's White House Correspondent John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): A new day in the presidential campaign and an immediate effort to frame the choice.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He spent two decades in Congress. He's built up quite a record. In fact, Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

KING: And in TV commercials a message that the incumbent is the right man for the challenges still ahead.

BUSH: I know exactly where I want to lead this country. I know what we need to do to make the world more free and more peaceful.

KING: The first ads of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign portray a president forced to deal with recession then terrorism, images of September 11 meant to remind voters of the first term's biggest test.

ANNOUNCER: But America rose to the challenge.

KING: Mr. Bush talked of a spirited race in a call to congratulate Senator Kerry Tuesday night and by early Wednesday the president's allies opened the effort to paint the Massachusetts Democrat as an elitist liberal bent on raising taxes.

REP. TOM DELAY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: He's either insincere about his new spending, dishonest about his new taxes, uninterested in the deficit or they just didn't teach him arithmetic at the European boarding school that he went to.

KING: The president trails Senator Kerry in national polls, his immediate short term goal to revitalize his standing now that the Democratic campaign is all but over.

ED GILLESPIE, RNC CHAIRMAN: Understand that the Democratic candidates in their primary have aired $17 million in attack ads against the president over the course of the past six months.

KING: Mr. Bush is upbeat about his chances but sees Senator Kerry as a tenacious foe, crediting him with fighting back when it looked like he would fall early in the Democratic race.

But in studying the Senators record and campaign statements, the president sees himself as a decisive leader and his opponent as indecisive, someone who zigs and zags on major issues and who gives meandering answers when asked about major challenges.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: The election still eight months away but tonight proof that the early jabbing will be quite intense. The president unveiling a new stump speech in which he went right after Senator Kerry saying he would hurt the economy by raising taxes.

He said perhaps he would portray America as too weak in the world and encourage America's enemies. He said he stood both ways when it came to the war in Iraq and, Anderson, again President Bush says Senator Kerry has no plan to end the war on terrorism.

COOPER: John, you mentioned the jabbing as it begun against Kerry but is it going to be televised? I mean in these new ads are there attacks on Kerry or is he even mentioned or is it more sort of setting the stage for the president?

KING: Right now it's setting the stage for future cards. The president did it in his speech tonight saying Senator Kerry in his view has voted every way on every major issue.

The president is trying to boost his own approval rating first and to reestablish what the White House believes is his greatest strength. You might disagree with some of his decisions but the White House believes they can portray the president as a decisive leader and Senator Kerry as indecisive.

That will be the key challenge for the White House in a race they say simply there will be fights over the economy, fights over taxes, fights over the war on terrorism. Most White House aides believe it will come down to one word leadership and who the American people choose.

COOPER: They're spending a couple million on these commercials but they have already spent some $40 million $41 million depending on who you believe of the $140 million or so on infrastructure. How important is infrastructure to the Republicans going to be?

KING: Infrastructure is quite important. Remember last time Florida was decided by 530-something votes. New Mexico was decided by 530-something votes. The president thought he would do better in Pennsylvania but union turnout overwhelmed the Republican effort.

Most of that money has been spent on an early grassroots organization, getting index cards, getting computer files, identifying voters and putting people in place who come Election Day have one simple job. Make sure they vote.

COOPER: All right, John King thanks very much at the White House.

And so it begins. There could be surprises between now and November, of course, and there no doubt will be and there are still the unknowns, including who will share the ticket with John Kerry and how exactly will the candidates make their cases and their attacks? But as much as today marks a new phase of the race the broad outlines of what might lie ahead were drawn months ago.

Here's CNN's Senior Analyst Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): So now we know as early as we ever have, months before the vote that the next president will be one of these two men.

KERRY: Change is coming to America.

BUSH: We'll leave no doubt where we stand.

GREENFIELD: Sometime in the next four months, perhaps earlier than ever before, we will learn who the running mate will be.

BUSH: I know exactly where I want to lead this country.

GREENFIELD: And as early as tomorrow when a $4.5 million ad campaign begins we'll learn how the president intends to state his case for reelection.

(on camera): But even at this early stage we already know a lot about the premises of each campaign and about their strengths and weaknesses. How do we know this, because the candidates and the voters have already told us.

ANNOUNCER: What sees us through tough times?

GREENFIELD (voice-over): President Bush intends to run as the leader who made the tough decisions defending America at war, the president who faced a world turned upside down on that September 11 and struck hard at our enemies.

BUSH: It is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers.

GREENFIELD: And he intends to draw a sharp contrast between his own decisiveness and an opponent who is by turns a waffler, someone who does not understand this dangerous world.

On the home front Bush says, as he did back in 2000 that the choices between a candidate who trusts the people and a candidate who does not.

BUSH: It's the same old Washington mind set. They'll give the orders and you'll pay the bills.

GREENFIELD: The poll numbers provide both encouraging and discouraging news for the Bush campaign. His job approval rating is down to 51 percent, a danger zone for any president and while the public still regards Bush as a strong and decisive leader they also show a public that sees Bush favoring the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class.

KERRY: There are also millions of Americans who are hurt by the policies that favor the few.

GREENFIELD: Clearly, Senator Kerry means to make that perception of Bush a central theme of his campaign but he also must deal with two potential weaknesses. First, the idea that he votes against the first Gulf War, his votes to cut defense and intelligence spending in years past mark him as a man who did not grasp the dangers this country faced.

KERRY: We will renew our alliances and we will build new alliances because they are essential to the final victory and success of a war on terror.

GREENFIELD: Second, the idea that Kerry is a wealthy patrician Boston (unintelligible) distant from the values and the concerns of the broad middle class. In his speech Tuesday night, Kerry often used the language of optimism and patriotism.

KERRY: Our campaign is about replacing doubt with hope and replacing fear with security.

GREENFIELD (on camera): If there's one word that may well define this entire election it is the word change. The Kerry campaign means that word as a promise, a change they say from unfair taxes, reckless spending and a dangerous foreign policy.

The Bush campaign means that word as a threat. We dare not change, they say, to a president who understands neither the country nor its citizens nor the dangers that lurk in the world beyond our borders.

But one change is certain. Four years after an election many called the Seinfeld campaign, an election about nothing, this one is shaping up as an election where really big things are on the line.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Another big thing on the line a blockbuster story in the business world. Walt Disney Company said today that it was splitting the chairman and chief executive officer jobs, a major blow to Michael Eisner who has held both titles for nearly 20 years now.

Under the new arrangement, Mr. Eisner will remain CEO but the chairman's title goes to company director George Mitchell. The board's decision came after shareholders earlier today delivered a huge vote of no confidence in Mr. Eisner withholding about 43 percent of votes for his reelection to the board at the company's annual meeting.

The number of shares withheld was higher than many had expected and represented a victory for former board members Stanley Gold and Roy E. Disney who have been leading a shareholder revolt against Mr. Eisner. Kim Masters from National Public Radio joins us later on on NEWSNIGHT to talk about the split as well as the company's future.

Also ahead tonight on NEWSNIGHT the future for the 9/11 commission, I'll talk with a member.

Also on the streets of Baghdad one day after devastating attacks, we'll go there.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well it goes without saying that the debate over gay marriage will shape the presidential election ahead but in a number of cities and states the horse is already out of the barn. And across the country, even as the legal challenges pile up, more barn doors are opening, including some today.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you enter a plea at this time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Your Honor, we'd like to enter a plea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Jason West, Mayor of New Paltz, New York pleads not guilty to 19 counts of solemnizing marriages without a license after he conducted same-sex ceremonies last week. He says the misdemeanor charges, which could send him to jail will not deter him from allowing gays to marry.

MAYOR JASON WEST, NEW PALTZ, NEW YORK: The issue before us today is one of civil rights. It's one of human rights. It's an issue of basic human decency.

MARQUEZ: And undeterred by the charges the openly gay mayor of Nyack, New York announced that he would begin allowing same-sex marriages too. New York's attorney general concluded that even though there may be room in the Constitution to allow for gay marriage right now the law says they are illegal.

ELIOT SPITZER, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today's opinion concludes that New York State statutes do not permit same-sex marriages.

MARQUEZ: A continent away in Portland, Oregon the county attorney says that state's constitution guarantees equal protection for homosexual, so she opened up the doors to gay marriage. Hundreds of same-sex couples lined up to apply. More than 300 licenses were granted.

JOHN DOYLE: I'm not making a political statement. I'm just saying I'm a citizen and I love this man and I want to have the same legal protections as heterosexual couples.

MARQUEZ: Oregon's governor says the county attorney moved too quickly and without public oversight deciding to grant the licenses. He says that the Oregon law defining marriage may have been written long ago but he believes it does not allow for gay marriage today.

GOV. TED KULONGOSKI (D), OREGON: At the time of the history of when the statute was written I think that it's clear that they were thinking about a man and woman getting married.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now a spokesperson for the attorney general here in Oregon says that the law regarding gay marriage is ambiguous at best.

And in Washington, D.C. the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist put it this way. "We are gambling with our future if we allow activist judges to redefine marriage for the whole society" -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Miguel Marquez thanks very much.

Some other stories from around the nation to tell you about right now, to Philadelphia we go. Carolyn Correa, the woman who allegedly set a fire and kidnapped a 10-day-old girl, turned herself into police and is now awaiting arraignment. A lot of questions still remain about what happened that December night in 1997. Her lawyer says Ms. Correa is convinced the child was hers.

In Houston, a jury convicted Susan Wright of murdering her husband Jeffrey by stabbing him 193 times. Wright had claimed self defense. Ms. Wright portrayed herself in testimony as the victim of a hateful sadistic relationship that spanned many years.

And in Phoenix where police discovered nearly 200 illegal immigrants inside an upscale property, about 100 to 150 people were inside the south Phoenix home and an additional 20 to 30 people were in a guest house on the same property. Officers went to the home after getting a call from a neighbor about suspicious activity.

Well the House of Representatives today approved a 60-day extension the 9/11 commission says it needs to complete its work. The vote is a major step toward making the extension law.

Richard Ben-Veniste is a member of the commission and he joins us now. Thanks for being with us, appreciate it.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION: Sure.

COOPER: The administration has said that they want to cooperate fully with this commission, are they?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, there have been some bumps in the road, which has taken time away from our straight ahead business but I think we're on a track now where we can complete and we can do a job that the public can be proud of.

COOPER: You talk about bumps in the road. I guess the big one that I guess that was resolved today was this extension. The extension is now to July 26. How important is it, was it to get that extension?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, that's the last of the bumps in the road we've had. It was important.

COOPER: There are still more to come (unintelligible). BEN-VENISTE: Well there were several before in terms of getting materials, getting them on time. We had to issue subpoenas. That's been a long and ongoing story. But I think we're now in a posture where we can have some very important hearings.

We've looked at two million pages of documents, conducted over 1,000 interviews. We have an extraordinary, hardworking staff of 60 full time people who have done a fabulous job.

COOPER: But the big interviews that you want to get, the president and the vice president, you're not getting the kind of cooperation I think it's fair to say that you would like.

The president and vice president have made themselves available -- they will make themselves available apparently only for one hour and not to the full commission. You will not get to question them. They will only meet with the two heads of the commission, why?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, that's the current posture and we're hopeful that they'll reassess and change. President Clinton and former Vice President Gore, of course, have agreed to meet with the commission as a whole and without reservation.

And so, we're hopeful that the president and vice president will do so as well. Three thousand people were murdered on September 11, 2001 in the worst atrocity in American history on our homeland.

COOPER: What are you hearing though...

BEN-VENISTE: Many people think that the president could be a little more generous with his time. I think that would be the right thing to do.

COOPER: What are you hearing from the White House about why they will not give you more time?

BEN-VENISTE: They have not specified to my knowledge.

COOPER: Condoleezza Rice, who has testified behind closed doors in front of the commission, you were pressing for a public testimony by her. The White House has really on legislative grounds they say or procedural grounds refused. Why is it so important to you and the other commission members to have a public hearing?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, again, the consensus of the commission, which is a bipartisan ten-member commission, was to invite Dr. Rice to appear publicly. We think she has important information.

It is an appropriate setting to provide that information. She has answered questions in press conferences and made public statements about 9/11 before and we think it would be appropriate for her to come.

COOPER: Is there something though you expect to hear publicly that you've not heard privately? It would seem to be the reverse. I mean... BEN-VENISTE: Well, certainly there are things in the private session of a national security nature, which would be inappropriate.

COOPER: Right.

BEN-VENISTE: But by and large there are other people who are testifying, the former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, former secretary of state and former Secretary of Defense Madeleine Albright and William Cohen as well as the present secretary of state and the present secretary of defense will all be testifying at the same hearing that Dr. Rice was invited to.

COOPER: But you have no way really of making the president or the vice president testify, I mean if they continue their stance? Other than sort of publicly asking them to reconsider there's no mechanism to make them do it.

BEN-VENISTE: Right now we're asking them to meet with the whole commission and to provide a little more time than they have agreed to provide so far.

COOPER: Is there anything you could do though to make them come after that?

BEN-VENISTE: Well, I think there are decisions, as we have seen with the Speaker of the House Hastert which on reflection have been revised over time. The president opposed the creation of the commission. He changed his mind about that. He opposed giving us more time. He changed his mind about that. We are hopeful that on reflection he will change his mind about this as well.

COOPER: I'll let it go at that. Richard Ben-Veniste thanks very much for coming.

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

COOPER: Appreciate it.

Well coming up on NEWSNIGHT, a state of emergency in Haiti. Lucia Newman will join us live with the latest.

Then a little bit later possible Kingdom Coup, the latest on the trouble at Disney.

And super size me no longer, one filmmaker who ate only McDonald's for a month and surprisingly he lived to talk about it, his thoughts on the downsizing of the super size.

On CNN this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We go to Iraq now and a day of mourning. After yesterday's bombings targeting Shiite worshipers in Karbala and Baghdad the death toll from the attacks varies widely. Coalition sources place the number at 117, while the Iraq Governing Council says as many as 271 were killed. And, as Jane Arraf reports, U.S. officials think they have a good idea who is responsible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): These young men whipping themselves in grief made their way towards the (unintelligible) mosque in Baghdad but the sacred site was closed. More than 30 people were killed there Tuesday and only those accompanying the dead were allowed in.

In Baghdad and in the holy city of Karbala, some of the more than 130 people killed in coordinated attacks were buried. This funeral for 18-year-old (unintelligible) killed in (unintelligible) like others considered a martyr.

In the street leading to the Baghdad shrine tight security as radical Shia cleric (unintelligible) called a demonstration for unity. "Yes to unity, no to the United States" they chanted.

"Now the real settling of scores has started" said (unintelligible). "Americans and no one else will pay for each drop of blood falling from a Shia, an Iraqi, because America is responsible for this."

Many said the U.S. should hand military control to the Shia authorities and their militias. There were no American soldiers to be seen on the ground but they made their presence known in the air.

Religious leaders also blamed the United States for letting the attack happen.

"The first reason for these massacres is the fact that the coalition forces are using wrong policies when it comes to security" said the head of a major Shia party. His party, like others, has its own militia which the U.S. has forced to disband. A revered Shia cleric blamed the U.S. for not securing the country's borders.

(on camera): U.S. officials say they believe at least some of the suspects in the Karbala bombing may have come across the Iranian border with a wave of religious pilgrims. The prime suspect they say continues to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the fugitive thought to be affiliated with al Qaeda but believed to operate independently from that organization.

(voice-over): Political parties opened their offices for formal mourning. In these halls of grieving and angry men, many said they believed Zarqawi, backed by Saddam loyalists, was responsible, but they had more resolve than ever to take control of their own security.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: In nature, vacuums fill up in a flash. In politics, that doesn't always happen. And the result is generally chaos, which brings us to Haiti and the virtual political vacuum there. Today, the prime minister declared a state of emergency even as a rebel leader backed down.

CNN's Lucia Newman has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How fast things change in Haiti. Wednesday morning, it was the U.S. Marines who were calling the shots at the very same place where the day before Haitian insurgents had set up their headquarters and declared themselves in command of the streets. So was almost everyone else when rebel commander Guy Philippe announced he and his men were laying down their weapons. Trying to save face, he explained his about-face.

GUY PHILIPPE, REBEL COMMANDER: This morning I had a meeting with the general here, the American general, and he assures that his troops will take care of the people's security.

NEWMAN: Philippe says he and his men, now no longer so visible, are awaiting orders from Haiti's interim president to hand in their weapons. Intense pressure from Washington apparently having forced his hand.

The Marines patrol downtown, while just a few blocks away, Haitian police were fired on and shot back. It is not clear by whom, but armed rebels loyal to Haiti's former president are still at large. And the power vacuum left by Aristide's departure is making Haiti more unstable by the day, with the former opposition demanding a new prime minister and government be named immediately.

CHARLES BAKER, DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM: When you're being attacked, nothing is ever fast enough. Go downtown and see the chaos and the pillage. And, I mean, we have lost over $100 million.

NEWMAN (on camera): If you ask most Haitians what's the most urgent thing right now, they will say security. The responsibility for that now falls squarely on the soldiers of the U.S. Marines and other international peacekeepers, a daunting task at that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: And, Anderson, the situation is even more complicated now. The still prime minister of this country, who was appointed by the former president, but who is still in his office, has declared, he says, a state of emergency and is naming a special counsel to oversee security here.

But it's not quite clear how he's going to enforce any kind of emergency since the new police chief no longer answers to him, but to the new interim president -- Anderson.

COOPER: Lucia, so Guy Philippe says he's going to be laying down his weapons. What about one of the other rebel leaders, Chamblain?

NEWMAN: Well, he is supposed to be under the command of Guy Philippe. Chamblain is supposed to be a soldier. He is supposed to obey the higher command. That's what they're saying. We'll have to see if they really do -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, certainly a lot of guns in the country. Lucia Newman, thanks very much.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, inside the family feud at Disney.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We told you earlier about the shakeup at Disney, but Michael Eisner's troubles had been building for quite some time. In addition to the internal shareholder revolt, he's also been fighting off a takeoff attempt.

National Public Radio's Kim Masters has covered Mr. Eisner throughout it all as a magazine columnist and author of the book "The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else," a great title, that. Ms. Master joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.

Thanks for being with us, Kim.

Let's first talk about what this means in terms of shareholders. This separation now of Michael Eisner of the job of CEO and chairman, how significant -- will this be enough to stomp the shareholder revolt?

KIM MASTERS, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: No.

You have a situation where George Mitchell, who is now the chairman of the Walt Disney Company, had a 24 percent no-confidence vote today, which, in the absence of the 43 percent vote against Michael Eisner, would normally be remarkable in and of itself. So I think that it's -- without even hearing what Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, the two dissident shareholders, former board members, who starting this have to say, it will be that this is not enough.

COOPER: Where does it go from here, then?

MASTERS: Well, you know, what Roy Disney and Stanley gold said today is that they are not going away, and they will continue this fight.

I think that, unless the Disney board can follow this up with a signal that they intend to do another step and that this isn't it, I think there will be a continued turmoil. And I think Disney will sort of continue to bleed into the water, as it's been doing since November, when Roy Disney was thrown off the board.

COOPER: The other staff, they're talking about being what? What options are open to them?

MASTERS: Well, it was very clear from not only what Stanley Gold and Roy Disney said, but what many of the public pension funds that said they would vote against Mr. Eisner and the shareholder advisory groups that said they should vote against Mr. Eisner.

They wanted to make this very clear. This was a referendum on Michael Eisner. This wasn't something about splitting the two jobs. This was, we do not want Michael Eisner running this company. And everyone knows that Michael Eisner is a very hands-on chief executive and having his friend and longtime ally George Mitchell nominally as chairman of the board isn't going to change a thing.

COOPER: And what does this change in terms of the takeover attempt by Comcast, if anything?

MASTERS: Well, I think that Comcast has obviously reiterated that it has an offer on the table today. Disney was swift to reject it.

The shareholders are, I think, based on their reaction at the shareholder meeting today, not hugely receptive to this offer. But if it's substantially sweetened, I think a lot of the larger shareholders will take a look, if Disney doesn't show that it's going to do something about its governance.

COOPER: And for those who haven't been following this story as closely as others have, what is the essential problem, for those who believe there is a problem with Michael Eisner? I mean, how much of it is personal and how much it is the way he has run the company?

MASTERS: Michael Eisner is a very charming man.

He was showing his charm today at the shareholder meeting. You almost wished you had seen more of it in the last few years. The stock has underperformed for a number of years now. And then, starting in November, there was like a one, two, three punch. They started out by throwing Roy Disney off the board, I think completely miscalculating what that name and that face, which so much resembles Walt, means to shareholders, a lot of the individual shareholders who are part of the Disney ownership.

They then lost their relationship with Pixar, which has been a huge fountain of animation hits, including "Finding Nemo" this summer, which is particularly frightening at a time when Disney's animation has performed poorly. And, finally, then the Comcast offer. And when you have this kind of turmoil and sense of shareholder discontent and nobody knows quite what's coming next, you make the stock vulnerable to a downward trend. You make the company vulnerable to a takeover.

I would think, if I were on the board now, I'd be nervous about shareholders suing and complaining about the way I'm running the company.

COOPER: What is Roy Disney, though, selling? I've talked to some people who said, look, if Roy Disney was still running the place, they'd be doing "Cinderella" two and three. He doesn't have much of a unique vision to bring the company into the future.

MASTERS: I'm not sure that Roy positions himself as saying, I have the vision to run this company.

I think that what he is saying is that Michael Eisner doesn't and there needs to be a change. And I think, with the 43 percent vote today, that shows that 43 percent of those owners of the company agree with him. He is selling the Disney experience. These people connect to what they call the magic. All day long at the shareholder meeting, these people would stand up and say, I have a few shares. I want the magic back. They feel that Disney has really lost its way.

COOPER: All right, Kim Masters, you've been covering it for a long time. Appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks.

MASTERS: Thank you.

COOPER: A quick look at some other stories making headlines, before we go to break.

Former WorldCom chairman Bernie Ebbers pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired with the company's ex-chief financial officer to commit the biggest corporate fraud in American history.

The fate of Martha Stewart is now in the hands of a jury. Jurors made two requests to review large amounts of evidence from the trial, but ended the day without reaching a verdict. They are set to return tomorrow morning.

And finally, to the stock market, where mixed economic reports led to a relatively flat day for the Dow and S&P. The Nasdaq was slightly lower.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, it looks like Ronald Reagan -- excuse me -- Ronald McDonald is watching his weight, living large, gets a makeover. That is coming up.

And bringing art and fashion to life one snapshot at a time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: When McDonald's said today it will downsize by the end of the year, many nutritionists cheered.

The world's largest fast-food company isn't cutting workers. It's giving the ax to supersized food, getting rid of the giant-sized fries and colossal sodas, it says, to please health-minded customers. A spokesperson said today the decision has nothing to do with a new documentary film called "Super Size Me," which is yet to be released. The film is about what happened when you eat too much McDonald's.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock was his own research subject. For 30 days, he followed his a supersized diet. The results, he says, weren't pretty or healthy.

He joins us now. Morgan, good to see you alive and well.

MORGAN SPURLOCK, FILMMAKER, "SUPER SIZE ME": Thanks for having me.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Explain to viewers. You ate McDonald's food three times a day for 30 days. Is that correct?

SPURLOCK: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, three squares a day for a month, yes. And, believe me, it wasn't pretty.

COOPER: What impact did it have on your body and how quickly did you notice that impact?

SPURLOCK: It was very quickly. Over the course of a couple weeks, apart from gaining weight, my cholesterol skyrocketed. My liver turned to fat. My glycerides, my blood pressure, everything just went haywire. And the doctors were dumbfounded. Everybody couldn't believe what was happening to my body. And it got really scary.

COOPER: Are you sad in any way to see the supersize go?

(LAUGHTER)

SPURLOCK: I think I'm far from sad to see the supersize go.

For me, in making the film, the film is a big examination of the whole obesity epidemic in America. And people can get more information at supersizeme.com, if they would like.

But for us, it was an examination of both personal responsibility and corporate responsibility. And in light of what's happening right now, the changes that they've now announced getting rid of supersize portions, you can't help but acknowledge that they're saying, you know what, we do have corporate responsibility to this problem. And they're changing that.

COOPER: You're a young struggling filmmaker, so I'm going to allow you that one free plug, all right? But that was it.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: Do you think the changing and the elimination of these supersized meals, will that in any way change the appeal of McDonald's to its customers?

SPURLOCK: I don't think it's going to change the appeal. Believe me, I still love cheeseburgers. I love cheeseburgers as much as the next guy.

But I think that it will start to turn the tide. Now we're seeing that corporations are saying, you know what, we do play a part in this obesity epidemic. We do play a part in making change. It is a small change. It's a small little piece. This isn't the solution, but it's a step in the right direction.

But on the same side, people also have to look at themselves and say, you know what, there's personal responsibility. I have to think about what I'm buying when I go in here. Do I need the large? You've got to think, the supersize is gone, but they've still got a 32-ounce soda that they're serving. That's a quart, a quart of soda.

COOPER: Well, what does it feel like to eat McDonald's food three times a day? I'm known to eat a fair amount of McDonald's food in my life, but not quite to the extreme you have taken it. Did you start to crave it or did you start to just get repulsed by it?

SPURLOCK: See, no, well, the thing is, as the diet went on and on, the more that I ate, the more that I wanted it.

I would eat the food, and, a couple of hours later, I would want it again. My body was just dying for nutrients that I wasn't getting from their food. This food is really stripped of a lot of nutritional value. And so the more you eat, the more you want. It was very overwhelming for me.

COOPER: And yet, at a certain point, is it -- eating like too many french fries, I imagine, at some point, you just can't stand the smell of them any longer? Did you ever reach that point or were there enough supersized meals to go around?

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: Yes, by the end of it -- because that's all they serve is french fries. And that's part of my whole beef with them as well is, give me a choice. Why do I only get french fries or french fries?

By the end, I couldn't even eat them. They tasted like smoked plastic. They tasted like such a nonfood to me, it was disgusting.

COOPER: Do you still eat McDonald's food?

SPURLOCK: Do I still eat McDonald's food?

COOPER: Yes.

SPURLOCK: No. I abstain.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: There's much better places to get cheeseburgers.

COOPER: How long did it take your body to recover?

SPURLOCK: All my body functions came back to normal in about eight weeks. It took me about five months to lose 20 pounds. I gained 24 1/2 in the whole month. And I still haven't lost the last 4 1/2. I'm trying, though, man. I'm fighting for it.

COOPER: What do you think it is about Americans, about the culture at large that has so embraced this supersize concept? Because you see it in just about everything now. Everything seems sort of larger.

SPURLOCK: Everything's bigger, from the cars to the food to the people. We want more for less. And it's not just about the supersizing. It's just about value. We want to know that we're getting more for less.

You and I grew up in a time when pocketbooks were tight and mom was like squeezing the pennies as much as we could. So, when you start thinking that, wow, I'm going to get a value, and it's been instilled in your mind to get as much value as you can, you go for the value, whether that's at a McDonald's or a Burger King, wherever.

See, for me, it wasn't like I was coming out to attack McDonald's. It's much more of an examination of the fast-food culture that has really enveloped our society. Fast food is everywhere. Fast-service restaurants are everywhere. It's in our schools now. Our kids are now eating fast food in schools. And it's really frightening.

COOPER: All right, Morgan Spurlock. The film is "Super Size Me." I appreciate you joining us on NEWSNIGHT tonight. Thanks.

SPURLOCK: Anderson, thanks for having me.

COOPER: All right, a pretty unique experiment.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, behind the lens, our latest look at the art of still photography.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Regular viewers of NEWSNIGHT know we have a thing for still photographs and their power to communicate. But every photograph is silent on the subject of how it got to be. Tonight, we peek behind the veil.

For fashion photographer Douglas Dubler, the process of make a photograph is a passion. We recently sat with him. On the other side of his lens, a $200,000 pearl necklace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOUGLAS DUBLER, FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER: What I do is beauty photography for the most part, not so much fashion, more beauty.

And what I attempt to do is to try and make these images be more timeless than fashion pictures. My art is creating what it is that I'm going to capture. So that begins with conceptualization, coming up a concept for what it is that you're going to do and then producing and executing that concept. What we're going to do today with these -- we've got this nice, this $200,000 pearl necklace, and the bustier with the -- so, it's going to be some very interesting -- did Sylvia (ph) explain to you about the makeup, what we're doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

DUBLER: We're shooting an ad for Calila (ph) and Ella Gafter, Ella gems, a very, very high-end jewelry client of mine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this is good. We're not touching it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is very good.

(LAUGHTER)

DUBLER: I may have $40,000 or $50,000 or maybe $100,000 at stake in the day of a production value there.

So, Walter (ph), you understand exactly what I want in terms of how we want that set up? Yes.

Everything that I do is very much a teamwork enterprise. It's not me thinking up and executing these things. I couldn't do this by myself.

And I got the highlights and the pearls to continue.

Since I'm shooting pearls here, I thought a good metaphor would be to have, as a pearl is layered, to have layers in the image there.

Beautiful. I love that. Hold it right there.

I've made sort of a bustier for the model, and it sort of looks like a shell that the pearl comes out of it. And she is coming out of that shell.

Don't move.

Good, good, good, good. Yes, yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The background is fine, right?

DUBLER: Yes, let's get that up on the screen right over here, OK, please?

The major advantage for me as an artist, it is in working with digital technology.

Beautiful, dear. Here we go.

I can observe what it is that I'm doing and have the opportunity to make changes and corrections in midstream.

Give me -- on the pack, Don, give me two-tenths. In the course of the day's work, when we're shooting, the client will be very much involved with this and say, oh, I like that, I don't like this.

Yes, yes, yes. But chin up a little bit more, chip up, yes, even more, even more. Chin up.

When we are finished the day's work there, there will be no guessing in terms as to what we have in terms of our final product.

Can you see? Can you see? Go, go, go. Go back to that.

I hope that the images that I produce that people look at cause people to stop and sort of think about what they're looking at visually, have it stimulate them, have it bring up some questions in their mind.

That position is great right there, right where you are. Yes, yes.

I only do the work that I do because I get gratification out of it. I get satisfaction out of it. It's what makes me get up each day and be excited about what I'm going to do for the day, because every day is different.

That's great. That's great. Here we go, dear. It's fabulous, dear, fabulous. Yes, this is good. This is good. This is good.

Many times, I'm shooting and I'm shooting digitally, the picture comes up there on the monitor, I know that's the picture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the push for the White House, we'll have an update on our top story, plus, a look at what's on the program tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A quick recap of our top story, Super Tuesday, the day after.

It's now a two-man race for the presidency with eight months to go. The presumptive Democratic candidate, John Kerry, hit the campaign trail today, his first stop, Florida. Tomorrow, the ad wars begin. The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign will launch its first television ads to the tune of more than $4 million the same day that the liberal grassroots group MoveOn.org begins a five-day advertising campaign attacking President Bush, the price for that, just under $2 million.

Tomorrow night on NEWSNIGHT, the often deadly practice of human smuggling. We'll take a look at Operation Ice Storm, a program designed to crack down on that crime. That is tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Before we go, here's Soledad O'Brien with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," a woman on trial for stabbing her husband 193 times in their bed, a wild scene in the court when prosecutors presented a graphic reenactment of what they think happened. How will that influence the jury? We're going to talk with a reporter who's been following the case on "AMERICAN MORNING." That's CNN tomorrow, 7:00 a.m. -- back to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Thanks very much, Soledad, a remarkable trial.

That's it for NEWSNIGHT tonight. I'll be back tomorrow night. And you can also catch me tomorrow on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" at 7:00 Eastern time.

Thanks for watching. Good night.

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





Kerry>