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McCain Stumps in Pennsylvania; How Safe Are Vaccines?; Buckling Down in Battleground States: Candidates Keep Pushing for Votes

Aired October 21, 2008 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Geologists kick up their heels over what they are calling a dinosaur dance war. More than 1,000 tracks were found on a three quarter acre rock site along the Arizona/Utah border. Go back 190 million years or so, and much of the west was desert. But geologists believe this site was an oasis where dinosaurs refreshed themselves before moving on. As on of the researchers put it, it was a place that attracted a crowd, kind of like a dance floor.
And that's the dinosaur dance music.

Campaign countdown, two weeks left. And a bigger push for votes. This hour John McCain live from one battleground state and Barack Obama in another must-win state. What he's saying, too. Plus we'll watch Wall Street. Will the Dow be able to turn positive in today's trading? We hope so. It's Tuesday, October 21st. I'm Heidi Collins. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Two weeks to go, the candidates taking their last laps through key battleground states now hoping to get undecided voters excited and get supporters to the polls. Barack Obama continues his campaign in Florida. John McCain talking to voters in Pennsylvania. We are awaiting both of their events live this hour.

Our Dana Bash is in Bensalem, Pennsylvania with John McCain. Suzanne Malveaux is with Barack Obama in Lake Worth, Florida. Let's begin with Suzanne if we could.

Suzanne, good morning to you. Once again, we know Senator Obama traveling across Florida this week. What exactly is on tap for today?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, what they're doing today is calling it an economic summit. A summit to create jobs here in Florida. As you know, a big, big impact, this financial crisis on people who live here, the voters, some 44,000 homes that are in foreclosure. It has the highest foreclosure rate second only to California.

So what Barack Obama has done is he's assembled four governors from Republican leaning states, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado and New Mexico to come here. They're all Democratic governors but essentially -- he's sorry we're getting a little feedback here. But essentially he is trying to win over those Republican states, and at the same time convince people here, the people in Florida to come out and vote. We understand from state officials that the Democrats have out registered Republicans 2-1. Barack Obama outspending John McCain in this state 3-1. So they certainly hope that by spending this money, getting out this vote and focusing on the economy, that they can get the kind of turnout they need, the message they need to put him over the top -- Heidi.

COLLINS: And Suzanne, there was news yesterday of course regarding Senator Barack Obama's grandmother living in Hawaii is seriously ill. Tell us a little bit more about how that will be handled. Obviously he wants to get there as soon as he can.

MALVEAUX: Sure. He's going to take part of Thursday and Friday off the campaign trail. He's going to travel to Hawaii to visit with his grandmother. She's 85 years old. She is gravely ill we have been told.

I have to say, covering Barack Obama in the last year, in doing a documentary I had a chance to talk to him, his wife Michelle and his sister, Maya, about his relationship. He says that she is really a kind of no-nonsense figure. They are very, very close. He calls her tute. That is his nickname for her. Short of tut tut, Hawaiian for grandmother. She never wanted to be called grandmother, so to say. She and Barack Obama's grandfather helped raise him when he was a teenager in Honolulu.

So they are very, very close. Maya she spends quite a bit of time, news watching, she loves bridge. She listen to books on tape. That type of thing.

She's been following the election, the campaign very, very closely but she hasn't been able to travel. She has some serious severe osteoporosis. So she has not been able to do that. She is the only person perhaps the one person when we traveled to Hawaii that we were not able to talk to directly because she has not been feeling so well over the past year. So but clearly things have made a turn for the worse. He is going to visit with her later this week, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

Certainly everybody wishing her well. Coming to us today from the Barack Obama event there that is getting ready to start around 10:30 or so.

Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much.

Also, we want to let you know that our Dana Bash is covering John McCain. There will be a live event happening there, happening in Pennsylvania. That event about to begin shortly here. So we will have it live as well. In fact, I'm being told that we may have Dana now.

Dana Bash, can you hear me?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I do. Hi, Heidi.

COLLINS: Good morning to you. All right. The crowd has gathered. And Senator John McCain will be coming to the podium shortly. What exactly is he going to say to the people who have gathered behind you?

BASH: Well, we're actually told that he's going to add kind of a new element to his stump speech. His stump speech which is primarily been focused, Heidi, on the issue of the economy and taxes, using of course Joe the plumber to help make his case. And he's going to try to make the case today that Barack Obama says one thing to one crowd and something else to another. He's actually going to be talking about sports and talking about the World Series, suggesting that one example is the fact that he says, Obama says in Tampa and Florida that he loves the Tampa team there, the Tampa Rays, and here he says he loves the Phillies. So that's one example of the kind of theme we're going to hear here.

But you know, just in terms of where we are, you can't really describe how critical this state of Pennsylvania has become to John McCain and how difficult it is going to be for him to win here. This is the first time, Heidi, he has been in a blue state in four or five days. He has been defending his own Republican turf up until now. And this is a state that our poll of polls shows that he is down by 13 points.

But his advisers say look this is a state where he basically has no choice but to compete in and to compete in hard because it has such a large number of electoral votes, 21 electoral votes. And the math is such that if he doesn't do well here, if he doesn't win here, he probably will be impossible for him to win the White House. But you know, a Republican hasn't won here, Heidi, in the past 20 years. So it certainly would be difficult for any Republican especially for a Republican in this environment in this election year -- Heidi.

COLLINS: What's the mood of the crowd behind you there? It seems to be pretty loud.

BASH: It's loud. You know, actually, this is a relatively small crowd. I was with the senator in Missouri yesterday. Obviously he didn't get the kind of crowds that we saw over the weekend for Barack Obama. Frankly, nobody has. But this is -- where we are right now is a suburb of Philadelphia. It's Bucks County. Obviously it's a work day.

But you know I would say maybe there are possibly about a thousand people here, maybe even fewer. So it's a little bit subdued. They're trying to rally them with the music. But you know, it's very interesting to see the difference in these crowds depending on where he goes. This is an area where there has been really a large Republican base historically.

But this is also an area, Heidi, where Democrats have now surpassed Republicans in terms of registration. You now, Hillary Clinton did really well here during the Democratic primaries, but Barack Obama has a really good turnout operation here. That's one of the many, many challenges that John McCain has in this state and frankly states across the country.

COLLINS: Two weeks ago. We've been saying it all morning long. CNN's Dana Bash for us in Pennsylvania this morning, covering McCain. Thanks so much, Dana.

COLLINS: Covering the battlegrounds, John McCain moves on to Pennsylvania, from Pennsylvania, I should say, to New Hampshire. His running mate Sarah Palin is in Nevada. She has rallies in Reno and Henderson before moving on to Toledo, Ohio tonight. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama heads to Virginia after his events in Florida. Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden is in Colorado in just a couple of hours.

Things getting out of hand after a Sarah Palin rally in Grand Junction, Colorado. You can see protesters blocking Palin's motorcade yesterday. Police jumped in and dragged them out of the way. No one was arrested. But police are reviewing videotape and they say it's still an active criminal investigation.

Some new poll numbers to share with you now, possibly having an effect on how people are making their presidential choice. We asked how you think things are going in the country today. 75 percent of you say things are going badly. 25 percent say things are fine. What are your feelings about what's going on in the country? Our CNN opinion research corporation poll found three-fourths of you are stressed and angry.

Will it be another wild ride on Wall Street or will the Dow continue yesterday's big gains? Right now the big board showing us down by double digits, about 40 points to the negative. So we are going to be watching that obviously closely as we have been for many weeks now. Also this hour with the nation's banking crisis under the microscope and on the hill. Lawmakers want to know what happened and are new rules need. So we'll be watching that.

Meanwhile, following the ripples to overseas stock markets. Stocks in Asia have been mixed overnight. But Japan's Nikkei index closed way up, its gain, more than three percent. The European markets have been bouncing around, too. At last check benchmarks in Britain and Germany are down now more than one percent.

Take a look at the big picture as we always do here with CNN's Christine Romans in New York this morning. So possibly another stimulus to talk about here?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Heidi.

You know, the government is doing everything it can with every kind of tool imaginable to try to unlock that credit market problem we've been talking about. The Fed just announcing that it's going to buy debts directly from money market mutual funds. That's its most recent endeavor from the Fed. A lot of talk about what could be another stimulus plan from Congress. Ben Bernanke, the Fed chief yesterday, essentially gave it the green light if Congress wanted to do it.

The White House said that it was open to the idea. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, has been talking about this for some weeks actually, some kind of a new second stimulus plan to get the economy going, to boost the economy a little bit. What is it that the Democrats would want? Because of course, the Democrats and Republicans have different ideas on the best way to use frankly your money and my money to try to boost the economy.

The Democrats want to fund more infrastructure projects that helps create more jobs. They want to extend jobless benefits and they want to raise limits on home loans backed by the government. The Republicans essentially want more tax breaks. They want to cut the capital gains tax in half for a couple of years. They want to cut taxes for firms, companies that are buying those troubled assets. And they want to expand capital gains exclusions on nonprimary home sales. For example, for second and third homes, the idea here being that that could prompt people to buy foreclosed homes and hold on to them. That might help the housing market.

So a couple of different ideas about how to go about it. One thing we know, that at least in the House version, a tax rebate check like you got earlier this year is now on the table. This is more cash assistance they're talking about to troubled states for infrastructure. That's what the Democrats want. And we'll see how it goes from here.

Now, I've been talking to economists about well does it work, does it help? I mean, the first one, did it help?

COLLINS: Exactly.

ROMANS: Did we just throw $168 billion down the tube? We're spending an awful lot of money here. I mean at what point does it help? And one economist I talked to says it has to be targeted, it has to be specific. It has to be exactly at the right time and then it can help. So I guess the question is can Congress, can Washington do something targeted. It has to be specific and it has to be exactly at the right time and then it can help. So I guess the question is can Congress, can Washington do something target specific and exactly right, if it goes perfectly, you know, you have to kind of trust that the Congress can do it perfectly I guess.

COLLINS: Yes. And then I would wonder if people are asking, all right, where is the money for a second stimulus coming from? We got the $700 billion. We had the first stimulus before that and now a second stimulus. I'm also watching John McCain here getting ready to come from the podium.

ROMANS: It comes from you and me.

COLLINS: Are you asking that. Again right. The money comes from us. It's our tax money, right? And when they don't have our tax money, what do we do? Well, we do what we always do to find the money, we borrow it. We borrow an awful lot of money. And we know that we've borrowed more money than is imaginable almost. And we're looking at big, big budget deficits. We borrowed and spent so much. We probably brought and spent already $10 trillion that we don't have. That has to be paid back some day.

COLLINS: I don't know what to say but I'm glad you pointed it all out.

ROMANS: I've left you speechless, haven't I?

COLLINS: It's an awful lot of money. It's ridiculous even to say that. It's an enormous amount of money. So everybody out watching their wallet very closely.

Appreciate it -- CNN's Christine Romans right now.

A quick look at the big board. You can see it down at double digits there, 36 points off. Dow Jones Industrial Averages, again we're waiting for Senator John McCain who is getting ready to come to the podium in Pennsylvania. We'll bring that to you just as soon as it happens. The economy, though, and its impact on race. Two weeks from today will Americans vote with their wallets? It is part of our day-long focus, it's going to be tomorrow right here on CNN. Very interesting. Make sure you watch for that.

Right now though, time to check in with Rob Marciano, severe weather center.

Good morning once again.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Heidi.

A little West Coast love, starting with SoCal waking up now for sure. And you have a fire weather watch in effect for the next couple of days. Offshore winds are going to start kicking some moderate Santa Ana event that will start today. You know, lower levels of humidity as it normally does with these winds coming off the mountains and deserts and compressing as it comes down to the valley. So that will heat them up as well. The temperatures could easily get to 90 degrees plus. And then the winds through the canyons will create critical fire danger we have. Critical fire danger today and it will probably be ongoing right through Thursday.

Let's take a look at KTLA, our Los Angeles affiliate out there. That's a cool shot. Sun coming up. You're looking at temps right now in the mid 50s. Good stuff. You get up to around 90 degrees before the day is done. And there's also offshore winds kick in. Maybe clearing out a little of that smog as well. All right. Some showers and thunderstorms across the midsection of the country. Some of these could get strong to severe from Nebraska south towards northern Texas, typical tornado alley, although we don't expect to see tornadoes out of this. We could see rough thunderstorms. As some energy begins to drop down out of the Canadian Rockies, some cool air with this and it will mix it up with some moisture.

So we'll start to see some agitation in the atmosphere for sure over the next couple days, not only the potential for severe weather but also the potential for seeing snow. Watching the tropics, this thing just south of Cancun, continues to show development. But it's very close to land. National Hurricane Center watching it, but not necessarily worried at least at this point.

Some snow flurries expected across parts of northern New England. And maybe some lake-effect snow showers across parts of upstate New York. You see a dusting in spots and then this thing really gets itself wound up. Heidi, over the next couple of days. We tried to use all colors in the graphics color pallet there to highlight what could be a pretty excitable storm.

COLLINS: Excellent. And with the colors that much more excitable. Very good.

MARCIANO: Your red hair looks lovely today.

COLLINS: Thank you, Rob. We'll check back later on should that develop later on. Thanks.

Counting every ballot. The State Department getting out the word and getting in the votes from Americans living overseas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We have been mentioning that we're waiting for Senator John McCain to come to the podium there in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. You can see him standing next to his wife. Can't see that podium. Looks like Cindy -- yes. Anyway, we're going to bring that you as soon as he takes the microphone. And also Barack Obama has his event today in Lake Worth, Florida. We'll bring that to you as it happens as well.

The presidential campaign entering their last lap. Now elections two weeks from today. And many voters like these in Dallas are casting their votes early. In Colorado motorists can cast absentee ballots without even getting out of their cars or you can walk in and vote the old-fashioned way.

In south Florida and across much of the country, some lines can take hours. Many early voters say it's worth the wait because the lines will likely be even longer on November 4th. Good point.

And in California, how is this for convenience. Voters need only to drive up, lean out and way in. Can democracy get any easier than this? or cuter with the puppy.

If you head to the polls, here's a reminder. Don't wear any campaign logos, of course, this woman was turned away from an Albuquerque polling place because she was wearing a Barack Obama T- shirt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF SAMANTHA RASMUSSEN, TURNED AWAY BECAUSE OF T-SHIRT: I was shocked because I felt that that's really unconstitutional.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No signs, no literature, folks can't even really wear T-shirts or buttons with any candidate you know information on them because that is considered campaigning.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: Bear in mind in most states have similar rules of course banning campaign from voting places. By the way, Rasmussen was able to cast her ballot. She went out to her van, turned her shirt inside out and then returned to vote.

Counting the overseas vote. Americans living abroad energized about this election, sending in their ballots from around the world.

CNN's Zain Verjee has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: A get-out-the- vote party in the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In London, the embassy there is telling Americans wherever they are to step up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you here to finalize your absentee ballot?

JANICE JACOBS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Our main role is to help Americans exercise their right to vote and just to get information out to them about how to do that.

VERJEE: Explaining paperwork and deadlines, even sending absentee ballots to the state where voters or their parents last lived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well that sounds like I'll probably make my mind up today.

VERJEE: For many, the process can be overwhelming.

HAROLD SCHEPIEN, AMERICAN IN LONDON: It was a little bit confusing actually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So was it helpful to come in today?

SCHEPIEN: Oh yes, yes, very helpful to come in.

VERJEE: Federal Express has a special deal new this year, discounts, and in some cases free delivery of U.S. ballots from 89 countries. Absentee votes can make a difference. They were part of the bitter ballot count in 2000.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: In a presidential election too close to call.

VERJEE: Counting of those ballots varies state by state. In some absentee ballots can arrive after Election Day. Some states only count them a couple weeks later. Republicans use this Web site to hunt for votes. Democrats are online, too, with celebrities making the pitch to boost turnout.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll be voting from London. But you can vote from anywhere. VERJEE: The Pentagon and the State Department helped get ballots to 1.4 million military members and their families. 100,000 U.S. government employees overseas and many as many as six million potential American voters living outside the U.S.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: The State Department says there are more people motivated to vote overseas than ever before, in Buenos Aires, for example, 800 people just came in to mail their absentee ballots.

Zain Verjee, CNN Washington.

COLLINS: See, that's keeping them honest.

If you have trouble at the polls, call the CNN voter hotline. Help us keep track of the problems. Of course, we will report the trouble in real-time. You can call the number on your screen there, 1-877-462-6608. We are keeping them honest all the way through the election and beyond.

A parent is covered but not his child. A new report on insurance raises concerns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Quickly and as promised, Senator John McCain in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... We're going to drain the swamp, my friends. And we need you. 14 days -- who's counting? 14 days we've got to get out our vote. You know, my friends, it's great to be here. I heard, and maybe you did, too, that Senator Obama was showing some love to the devil rays down in Tampa Bay yesterday.

I'm not dumb enough to get mixed up in a World Series between swing states. But I think -- but I think I may have detected a little pattern with Senator Obama. It's pretty simple, really. When he's campaigning in Philadelphia, he roots for the Phillies. Then when he's campaigning for the Tampa Bay shows love to the Rays. Kind of like the way he campaigns on tax cuts but then votes for tax increases after he's elected. The way he says he backs the middle class and then goes and attacks Joe the plumber after Senator Obama is asked a tough question.

What's that all about? Joe didn't ask -- you know that Joe didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house, and he didn't ask to be famous and he certainly didn't ask for the political attacks on him from the Obama campaign.

(APPLAUSE)

Joe's dream is the American dream to own a small business that will create jobs and the attacks on him are an attack on small businesses all over this nation. We're not going to stand for that. Just like our friends here at TC Millwork. Small businesses employ 84 percent of Americans. We need to support small businesses, not tax them.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, after months and months of campaign trail eloquence, we finally learned what Senator Obama's economic goal is. As he told Joe, he wants to, quote, "spread the wealth around." Spread the wealth around. When he was asked by Charlie Gibson about capital gains tax, he said it doesn't matter if it hurts the economy. It's all fairness.

My friends, we've seen that act from the left before a long time ago. He believes in redistributing the wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans. Senator Obama's more interested in controlling who gets your piece of pie than he is in growing the pie. This explains some big problems, some big problems with my opponent's claim that he'll cut income taxes for 95 percent of Americans. You might ask, how do you cut income taxes for 95 percent of Americans when more than 40 percent pay no income taxes right now? How do you reduce the number zero? Well, that's the key to his whole plan.

Since you can't reduce income taxes on those who pay zero, the government will write them all checks called a tax credit, and the Treasury will have to cover those checks by taxing other people, including a lot of folks just like Joe. In other words, Senator Obama's plan to raise taxes on some in order to give checks to others, it isn't a tax cut. It's just another government give-away. We've seen too much of that already in America, my friend.

(APPLAUSE)

The Obama tax increases would come at the worst possible time for America and especially for small businesses like the one Joe dreams of owning. The small businesses Senator Obama would tax provide 16 million jobs in America. And a sudden tax hike for those businesses will kill jobs in a time when we need to be creating more jobs. I'm not going to let that happen, my friends. I'm not going to let that happen.

(APPLAUSE)

America has an alternative to the phony tax cuts my opponent started talking about only months ago. The McCain-Palin tax cut is the real thing. We're going to double the child reduction for every family in America. We'll cut the capital gains tax .

(APPLAUSE)

And we'll cut business taxes to help create jobs and keep American businesses in America.

(APPLAUSE) And as Joe has now reminded us all, America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by giving our money to the government to spread the wealth around.

(APPLAUSE)

In this country we believe in spreading opportunity for those who need jobs and those who create them, like right here. And that's exactly what I intend to do as president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

The next president won't have time to get used to the office. We face many challenges here at home -- you know that -- and many enemies abroad in this dangerous world. Now this weekend, as Lindsey (ph) mentioned, Senator Biden guaranteed that if Senator Obama is elected, we will have an international crisis to test America's new president. We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars.

What is more troubling, even more troubling than that, is that Senator Biden told their campaign donors that when that crisis hit, they would have to stand with them because it wouldn't be apparent that Senator Obama would have the right response.

Forget apparent -- forget apparent. We know Senator Obama won't have the right response.

(APPLAUSE)

We've seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign. He opposed the surge strategy that is bringing us victory in Iraq and will bring us victory in Afghanistan.

(APPLAUSE)

He said he would sit down unconditionally with the world's worst dictators. When Russia invaded Georgia, Senator Obama said the invaded country, Georgia, small teeny country, should show restraint. He's been wrong on all of them. We can't spend the next four years the way we've spent much of the last eight hoping for our luck to change at home and abroad. We have to act. We need a new direction and we have to fight for it.

(APPLAUSE)

I've been fighting for this country since I was 17 years old, and I have the scars to prove it.

(APPLAUSE)

If I'm elected president I will fight to shake up Washington and take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm not going to spend -- I'm not going to spend $750 billion of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers that got us into this mess. I'm going to make sure we take care of the working people who were devastated by the excess, greed and corruption of Wall Street and Washington.

(APPLAUSE)

COLLINS: All right. There you have just a little taste of Senator John McCain today in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. We also want to make sure that you know that Senator Barack Obama has an event in Lake Worth, Florida. People have gathered there. We haven't seen anyone come to the podium just yet. But we'll keep our eye on that as well and bring that event to you live. Equal time here on CNN.

We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Pressure on the battleground states. John McCain and Barack Obama making appearances in a couple of those prime states today. Barack Obama is in Lake Worth, Florida, right now. His rally there getting ready to begin. And John McCain -- we just heard from him in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. That's near Philadelphia. Then across the state for a couple of stops in central and western Pennsylvania. We'll bring Barack Obama's event to you just as soon as it happens.

Meanwhile, an important issue, the safety of vaccines. A concern for many parents today -- when to do the vaccines, which ones, all of them or just some? A forum being held this week with leaders from the many sides of this debate involved. We're going to be speaking to a physician in just a moment on the topic.

But first, the forum host. Deirdre Imus of the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology.

Hi there, Deirdre. Tell us first why you decided to go ahead with this forum and what it was that really stood out to you -- that parents seemingly need to know.

DEIRDRE IMUS, ENVIRONMENTAL CTR. FOR PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGY: Hi, Heidi.

Well thank you, yes. This is a very important issue. And the reason why we're holding the forum is there's a real crisis in confidence with parents with their public health officials and their doctors over the issue of the safety of vaccines. And we are -- it's historic because we're the first hosting an event and sponsoring it where we're bringing together parents, legislators and public health officials and doctors all in one room to discuss this issue with some of the finest professionals in the area of vaccine safety with --

COLLINS: What would you say, Deirdre, is the main concern when parents come to you, or when you hear from physicians who are usually counseling these parents, what is the No. 1 thing that really stands out that people are most confused or maybe I should say worried about?

IMUS: Well there are four major concerns.

And that is proof of safety, which to date they have not proven the safety of all these vaccines.

No. 2 is the toxins that are in the vaccines. We've heard of the mercury, ethyl mercury, but also formaldehyde and aluminum, which are also neurotoxins and a carcinogen, formaldehyde is.

No. 3 is the number of vaccines, prior to 1983, our children received a maximum of 18 vaccines. Today your children receive up to 50 vaccines, too many, too soon. And have they proven the safety of having that many vaccines? And does that make sense to give them so early, over 30 of those vaccines that are given by the time a child is 6 six or 7 years old.

And the fourth issue is mandate. New Jersey, the state of New Jersey, for the first time ever, has mandated vaccines. They've always been recommended, and now they've mandated, starting at 3 years old, that a child must get the flu shot every year until they're 18 years old.

COLLINS: Well --

IMUS: So these are the major concerns that we're going to be discussing that are the problems with the vaccine program.

COLLINS: OK. And so I just want to remind everybody -- how do you get the information that will come out of this forum? Because there may be a whole lot of people, new parents like myself, who are going through this process right now with vaccinating their babies, and they want to know what's being said here.

IMUS: Well -- people can logon to dienviro.com because for the several hundred people that are RSVP'd to fill the room we also want everyone that can't be there go on our Web site. We're streaming it web cast live, so they'll be able to listen in -- thousands of people that won't be able to attend.

But we're having all sides of the issue with the director of pediatrics from Hackensack University Medical Center, Dr, Jeffrey Boscamp, and Dr. Meg Fischer, and the commissioner of health of New Jersey, commissioner Heather Howard, is going to be speaking. And David Kirby who wrote the book, "Evidence of Harm," and one of the finest green pediatricians in the country, Dr. Larry Rosen. So we brought all these people together in one room and then we will open it up around 4:30 to Q&A for the audience to ask those questions, those concerns.

COLLINS: OK. Very good. Tell us the address one more time so the people have it.

IMUS: It's dienviro.com.

COLLINS: Dienviro.com. Well good luck with it. We'd love to hear what comes from it. We sure do appreciate it.

Deirdre Imus--

IMUS: Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: -- thanks so much.

And we want to make sure that we have the other side, although there are many sides to this issue. So joining us now is Dr. Joseph Gigante. He's a pediatrician at the Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital.

And I wonder, Doctor, I'm sure you were able to listen to Deirdre Imus and some of the concerns that have come her way and have therefore have sort of prompted her to hold this forum.

What do you think of having a forum on this? And what do you think, over all, of the safety of the vaccines, the way that they're recommended to infants and children today?

DR. JOSEPH GIGANTE, PEDIATRICIAN: Well, Heidi, I think it's great that the forum is being held so that the public can get all the information.

But one thing I want to do is reassure you, and reassure all the viewers, that vaccines are safe. In order for a vaccine to be licensed in the United States, the FDA has to approve of the vaccine and there's rigorous testing that is done prior to licensure. It usually takes about 10 years of testing before the vaccine hits the market. Then once the vaccine does hit the market, the monitoring of safety continues. So the vaccine manufacturers actually have to submit lots of the vaccine to the FDA to test it to be sure that it's safe, that's effective and that's also pure.

And there are a number of systems set up to monitor vaccine safety. So if there are any kind of side effects, those are made aware to these agencies and systems are in place to be able to respond to any kind of side effect that takes place.

COLLINS: OK. So, when you're talking about these toxins and the aluminum and the formaldehyde that we heard Deirdre bring up, we should absolutely, unequivocally, not be afraid of those things and vaccines are 100 percent safe?

GIGANTE: Absolutely. These -- these -- the amounts of these chemicals are measured in the vaccines. The amount of aluminum that is in vaccine is minuscule. There's aluminum really available everywhere. People are exposed to it in water, food, the environment that we live in. In fact, there's aluminum in breast milk and in formula. So, while there's aluminum in those substances, and obviously kids have to eat, the amount in breast milk and the amount in formula is minuscule, not enough that it's going to cause any kind of harm or any kind of damage to children.

I think another one of the issues that I wanted to kind of talk about is the number of vaccines. I think that's something that's always brought up is that the number of vaccines --

COLLINS: Yes because there are a lot of people or a lot of parents who are trying to do smaller amounts of injections and over a longer period of time. It's something that I chose to do.

GIGANTE: Yes, I think -- again, to reassure you, one of the testing -- part of the testing with the vaccines is to test vaccines in combination with one another, and also test them at the strength that's needed in order to help prevent disease. And I think while more vaccines are being given now, the vaccines are actually much safer now, the safest they've ever been.

If you look at the number of antigens, which is basically kind of the small particles of virus and bacteria that are in vaccines that help boost immune response in kids, if you were a child in the 1960s, over 3,000 of these antigens were in vaccines.

COLLINS: Yes.

GIGANTE: Today, there are just fewer -- a little over than 100 of these antigens in vaccines. So there's -- more than 3,000 antigens were in vaccines in the '60s, rather than vaccines today. So if anything, the immune system of children today are actually getting a much, much smaller load of antigens than they had been in the past.

COLLINS: I think people are still going to be asking many, many questions whenever it comes to injecting your children with anything. And I think it's warranted. So we, of course, are going to stay on top of this story as we have been here at CNN.

And sure do appreciate your insight. Dr. Joseph Gigante, thank you.

GIGANTE: Thank you.

COLLINS: So which way will Wall Street go today? We've got a check of the markets coming your way next.

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COLLINS: Can the Dow add to its nearly 400 point surge yesterday?

Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with a look at what's behind today's action, which isn't a whole lot right now, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Relatively speaking, this is nothing, Heidi. But we are seeing a little bit of giveback from the Monday Bernanke boost, in which the chairman of the Federal Reserve said that a second stimulus package is worth thinking about. We are seeing signs of continued easing in the credit market. And that obviously is a good thing. But we're also seeing a slew of corporate earnings, so that tends to be a volatile time because you're just hearing so many different things. And this week we're getting slammed. We're hearing from 150 of the S&P 500 companies, among them American Express. It's obviously in the financial sector. Its profits fell nearly 25 percent in the last quarter, but it still beat Wall Street forecasts. The bottom line, hurt by the rising cost of credit. AmEx said that it may obtain funding from the government. But analysts say the problem with a credit card company like American Express is not only the higher credit costs, but also customers having a harder time paying their bills on time.

We also want to mention two other Dow stocks that are on the move. Du Pont shares and -- its third quarter profits tumbled 30 percent, hurt by clean up of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. 3M, meanwhile, profits edged up 3 percent. It makes everything from Scotch Tape to Post-It Notes. And it did well overseas.

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COLLINS: The economy and its impact on the presidential election, Certainly something to talk about. Wondering whether people will be voting with their wallets. We of course, will be watching all of that in the two weeks remaining until election day.

A parent is covered, but not his child. A new report on insurance raises concerns.

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COLLINS: When you think of children being uninsured, you probably think the whole family lacks coverage. But that is not always the case. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is here now with a look at a new study, a new survey that was done that shows this really isn't the case.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. It's not the case. And a lot of times we often think, oh, when people are uninsured, it's because they're not working. These are folks who are working. The parents have insurance but the kids do not.

In fact, 1.5 million kids who have a parent who's insured, but the kid is not insured. And then, there's another 1.5 million kids who have an insured parent, but the kid does not have insurance all year long. They have many, gaps. So, obviously this is not a good thing.

COLLINS: Well, no. And you have to wonder why don't they insure them?

COHEN: The reason why is that it costs money.

COLLINS: Sure.

COHEN: So, your employer offers you insurance but they're going to charge you more if you want to put your kids on the insurance. And it is not a small amount.

COLLINS: Yes. Isn't it a whole lot more once you end up in the emergency room or otherwise?

COHEN: It could be. Right. But, if you don't have a lot of money and you've got this otherwise healthy kid, you think why should I spend an extra $2,000 a year insuring my child when, hey, nothing's going wrong so far and I'm really financially strapped. I can use that $2,000 to pay for my rent or to pay for whatever.

So that's the option, that's the choice that some parents are making. And Heidi, those are 2005 numbers. It's probably a lot more now.

COLLINS: Yes. I had no idea. I know that you've actually done a story with somebody who's been in this situation.

COHEN: We did a story with a family that made that decision. They said we are strapped. We are not going to insure our child because he hardly ever goes to the doctor. Then the child had car accident. So, they were thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. The hospital ended up having to eat a lot of that. And then you and I pay for it. You know what I mean? The rest of us who are insured, that ends up upping our premium. So, it's really a bad situation all right.

COLLINS: Yes. And unfortunately I mean, that's what insurance is. Preparing for the unexpected.

COHEN: Right. But if you can't afford it, that's a big deal. It's a problem.

COLLINS: All right. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you.

Game-changing error. Hundreds of people thought they had won thousands of dollars in a state Lottery. But it kind of looks like the are out of luck.

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COLLINS: OK. Quickly we want to remind you about this event coming your way very quickly. Senator Barack Obama is in Lake Worth, Florida. Earlier on our show you saw Senator John McCain in Pennsylvania. Just want to let you know that is coming up any minute now.

Meanwhile, not so lucky number 7. A Virginia lottery promised a grand prize of $7,777 if numbers on the ticket added to seven. Well, hundreds of ticket holders thought they were winners, only to be told a computer error caused misprints.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't see why that's my problem. I think it should be their problem. And I'm really very sorry they had a computer glitch. But, stand by what it did.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: Well, the ticket actually says that it is void if misprinted. Still Lottery officials are talking with the state attorney general's office to see if they do, in fact, have to pay up. We'll let you know.

I'm Heidi Collins. You can join me again tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

For now, CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.