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The Obamas Visit to the White House

Aired November 10, 2008 - 14:00   ET

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

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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S: Millions of Americans to be overcome with pride in this inspiring moment that so many have waited so long for.

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The wait is over. The president and the president-elect. Their historic rite of passage happening this hour.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you know, the enemy tries to put women and children in front of them.

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PHILLIPS: Civilians caught in the cross fire. U.S. troops in harm's way. CNN takes you inside one of the most dangerous battle fronts in the world.

How many times have you said to yourself, if I were in the White House, I would -- well; now you can make them come true online. We'll get you wired.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. You're live at the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well it hasn't been a week since Barack Obama won the White House and here he is as a ritual, of presidential succession, only this year there's no time for small talk. President Bush invited Barack and Michelle Obama to the tour of the executive mansion to discuss the transition and it was against the backdrop of an economic crisis and two wars.

Mr. Bush has promised to make the hand-off as smooth as possible. In his post election news conference Obama promised to go in with a spirit of bipartisanship. Well this isn't just Barack Obama's first oval office visit as president elect. It is his first oval office visit period. Our Elaine Quijano can tell us what we will expect once they start talking. My guess is Elaine they're already right into it.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. You know, hello to you, Kyra. We were expecting that all of this is going to start taking place at 2:00 Eastern. Right now. Instead we saw it happen about ten minutes or so ago. That the Bushes greeted the Obamas on the south lawn of the White House. And very quickly, just moments after their arrival, the two couples headed inside the White House to the diplomatic reception room. They were greeted there.

We are told by the chief usher and then moments later the president and the president-elect took that traditional walk down the colonnade. We have seen this shot certainly so many times before. It is an image really steeped in American history, and particularly with this transition as well, this is the first transition post-9/11, of course, and this is the first African-American president-elect.

Now, what is on the agenda? Certainly a top priority right now is the economy. But also likely to be on the agenda, national security issues as well as the wars Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, a big question is what is the dynamic between these two men going to be like? Considering Barack Obama on the campaign trail ran and won largely by highlighting his strong opposition to Bush administration policies. Well, here is what White House press secretary Dana Perino had to say about that earlier today.

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DANA PERINO, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is going to be a private meeting. There's not a lot that we can do to preview it. I don't think any of us can understand what it's like for two people who are now going to be in a very small club, who understand what it's like to be the commander in chief, to be the leader of our great country. They'll have a private conversation. I'm sure they'll talk about a range of issues.

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QUIJANO: Now, Dana Perino going on to say that it has always amazed her how President Bush is able to as she says let that heated rhetoric just slide off his back and move forward. Now, also today, of course, we should mention that Laura Bush and Michelle Obama at this hour are meeting and taking a tour of the private residence of the White House. This, Kyra, really is going to be an opportunity Mrs. Obama to get a closure look at the place that will become home for the Obama family. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Elaine Quijano thank you so much. For all of the acrimony leading up to the election, most Americans expect a trouble-free transfer of power. CNN Opinion Research Corp. polls shows 57 percent of us believe the hand-off will be relatively easy, 39 percent believe it will relatively difficult. By party, Republicans are much more optimistic than Democrats. That's not to say that Americans are softening towards President Bush, 76 percent of Americans disapprove of the job he's doing, making him the least popular president in the history of presidential approval ratings.

Harry Truman ranked second. His disapproval rating peaked at 67 percent in 1952. Nixon's peaked at 66 percent when he resigned in disgrace. And Bush 41 scored a 60 percent disapproval rating in the summer of 1992. So history is in the air, but the president-elect's thoughts will be of the future. CNN's Candy Crowley is on the phone with us.

Candy this won't be your typical walk-through.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, and partly because there is so much facing this president-elect. And partly because of the urgency. I think you heard him say in his news conference that he, president-elect Obama, would like a stimulus package sooner rather than later. Well, that's really still falling under President Bush's purview and really is something that president-elect Obama would like to move through before he even gets in office on January 20th.

On the other hand, we -- this is our first post-9/11 transfer of power. And we know that President Bush and, indeed, those involved in national security and homeland security want very much to talk to Barack Obama about that and filling him in on certain things. We know he's been getting top-level CIA briefings and some other top intelligence officials. So he is up on much of what the president knows.

But there are two really burning items here, and this -- this clearly is a time, as far as back as I can remember, where the nation is in a perilous position. Both with the economy and obviously with two wars going on in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

So there is a lot on the plate here. And I suspect that is why at this point we're seeing an earlier-than-usual meeting at the White House because, sure, you want to say, listen, don't ever go down this elevator or be sure to do this, but there are real substantive things that can be discussed. We won't know until after they come out because they come at things in two different directions, whether they're having a substantive talk, but I think we'll know when we see the length of it.

PHILLIPS: That's what I wanted to ask you, Candy. We're being respectful to this whole process. It's the president-elect meeting with the president of the United States and they've got to talk about substantive things, but, you know, this is the least popular president in the history of presidential approval ratings. This is someone that has been the head of an economic meltdown, two wars.

I mean, he's not necessarily leaving behind a real rosy legacy. So I guess my question is they will discuss important issues, but will Barack Obama really be seeking President Bush's advice, direction, and help? You know?

CROWLEY: No, I can't imagine since they are so opposite in -- in ways they approach both the economy and the wars. Obviously President Bush thought the war in Iraq was a just war. Barack Obama doesn't. Obviously on those things, I don't think Barack Obama is going there to get lobbied by President Bush for one thing or another and I don't think President Bush thinks that. That doesn't mean that they can't accomplish something of mutual that they share mutual ground on.

Perhaps a stimulus plan. I think there's another element here, and I think Dana Perino keyed on it, and that is that this is a pretty small club. And in some sense, these presidents can say, you know what I found to be really difficult? It was keeping people out of my office.

Or I didn't feel that there was enough discussion with, you know, x, y, and z. Granted, they'll also have two different staffs. But those sorts of things may be useful. Or don't let them push you around on the time, you know, meeting the time slots that you're supposed to meet.

PHILLIPS: It's OK to be late.

CROWLEY: Yeah, that's right.

PHILLIPS: And, Candy, maybe they'll agree on the curtains.

CROWLEY: Exactly. Now he can measure them.

PHILLIPS: There you go. He's bringing in the tape measure. It's for real. Candy thanks so much for calling in. I appreciate you very much.

CROWLEY: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well, Barack Obama's new job means the state of Illinois will need a new senator as well. And that person may be Valerie Jarrett. She is a long time Obama friend and confidence who now co-chairs his transition team. A prominent Democratic source says that she's Obama's choice to succeed him, but Illinois' governor, a Democrat, will decide. Over the weekend, Jarrett sat down with Don Lemon in Chicago and thought back to last Tuesday night.

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I have to ask you, the first thing once it was announced, what did he say to you?

VALERIE JARRETT, CO-CHAIR, OBAMA TRANSITION TEAM: He just looked at me and I looked back at him and you couldn't possibly put in words how we were feeling, the expressions said it all. It was really like job well done. Job well done. Change the world.

LEMON: You did.

JARRETT: He did.

LEMON: You helped, though.

JARRETT: Couldn't have happened without him. Leadership and tone, vision, judgment, that all starts at the top.

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PHILLIPS: Jarrett adds it's very gracious of President Bush to invite the Obamas to the White House so soon after the election.

Well, it's a historic transition to power, but that doesn't mean it will be a smooth one. Barack Obama is inheriting an economic meltdown along with two wars. Has any other president come into office based on these circumstances? Let's ask presidential historian Doug Brinkley. Doug, has someone come in with so many nightmarish issues to deal with?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, the late historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who died just a couple of years ago used to say the point of history is to remind us that our times are not uniquely oppressive. We have had oppressive moments. You think about Abraham Lincoln coming in, having confederate forces as he is president in Virginia, Maryland seething with anger.

You have Franklin Roosevelt coming in 1932 with an economic depression and a stock market meltdown on his hands. What I think is unique going on right now, though, is how fast everything has gone. I guess this is the youtube campaign 2008, but now we're seeing it's still playing out in these sorts of Nano-second moments. Usually this meeting between President Bush and Obama would take place well into December.

But here it is now being moved up just like the inaugural used to be when Franklin Roosevelt won in November but he wasn't inaugurated until March of 1933. We've moved inaugurals until January. This year it feels like the big speech for Obama was in Chicago election night. From that moment on, he almost seems like our de facto president largely due to the lame duck status of President Bush and how low those public opinion numbers are.

PHILLIPS: Speaking of those public opinion numbers and how low they are, how do you think that history will remember Bush? We're talking allot about Barack Obama. We know how he's going to go down in history, at least for being the first on many levels, but, you know, let's talk about Bush for a minute. Not looking so good when it comes to his history.

BRINKLEY: Ronald Reagan had a rule, never fall below 50 percent in the public opinion polls. When he started seeing himself get below 50, he would change policy to try to win over the American people.

You've seen a president literally since Katrina in August 2005 hovering in the 30s, then into the 20s. It hasn't been good, particularly these last years. I think that the Democrats and a lot of Americans never took him seriously as president due to the 2000 Gore versus Bush run-off. The fact that the Supreme Court had to decide.

The fact that Al Gore won more votes. That transition did not go well between the old Clinton hands and the new Bush people. Of course, the squeaker victory over John Kerry. He seems to be a president who's never been able to rule with more than a 50 percent mark except right after 9/11 or except at a couple of key moments thereafter.

So it's not a legacy looking particularly good, but he will be -- you're talking about Barack Obama moving in. The Bushes now have to pack up; they have to ship their -- their boxes and belongings down to Dallas, Texas. They're going to divide their time between Dallas and Crawford. He has a presidential library to build there at Southern Methodist University and a non-partisan think tank called the Freedom Institute. He'll probably be writing a big memoir which will come out in the next four or five years, trying to tell us how many crises he had and try to remind us that we weren't attacked in this country on his watch after 9/11 due to the homeland security measures he put in place even though Iraq was -- was riddled with mistakes.

PHILLIPS: Are you going to write a book on President Bush?

BRINKLEY: I'm on Theodore Roosevelt right now. I'm very comfortable back in 1904.

PHILLIPS: It may be more interesting doing Teddy Roosevelt.

BRINKLEY: He was an amazing man. I've been writing about how he put aside 240 million acres of land for national parks, monuments and wildlife.

PHILLIPS: There you go decorated.

BRINKLEY: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: It's the top task on his agenda and it might be his toughest. Barack Obama tackles the economy. We are going to go one on one with one of his top advisers.

China is pumping its economy and that is pumping up over seas markets. Stimulus news from Beijing.

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PHILLIPS: President Bush meeting with Barack Obama and you don't have to be a fly on the White House wall to know that the economy tops the agenda. Overseas markets got a boost today as China revealed a massive stimulus package that investors believe will help ease the global economic crises. The Chinese plan to pump $586 billion into their economy, which could help multinational companies like General Electric and Caterpillar.

China's booming economy has slowed a bit this year. Especially since fewer people are buying Chinese exports. Wall Street rallied early upon word of the stimulus, but then pulled back amid lingering fears over the health of U.S. companies. Now, there is one U.S. Company getting some good news today.

AIG is getting a better, bigger bailout. The government is pumping more money into the struggling insurance giant fattening up an already big bailout package to more than $150 billion dollars. The government is buying AIG stock with $40 billion of that money giving taxpayers a stake in the company. There are strings attached, including limits on golden parachutes, the big-money benefits for executives. AIG says it lost more than $24 billion in the third quarter of this year.

Well all this bail out talk as automakers are asking, what about us? GM, Ford and Chrysler are seeking their own government bailout as they bleed money and jobs of failing sales. The companies have already met with Democratic congressional leaders who are urging the government to expand its $700 billion bailout plan to help out the big three. GM has said it could actually run out of money by the end of the year.

And from lost money to lost jobs, thousands of them, DHL Express is laying off 9,500 American workers and shutting down its air and ground operations with the U.S. a delivery company is German-owned and has faced stiff competition from the likes of FedEx and UPS. The latest job cuts are on top of 5,400 announced earlier this year.

Meanwhile, major electronics retailer has short-circuited just weeks before the crucial holiday season. Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange has all the details. Oh, Steph, not a good time.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's so rough. It's brutal, Kyra, when you come in on a Monday and hear more about this. It shows you how much pain is out there in towns across America. The writing has been on the wall for Circuit City for a while now. Last week, the nation's second largest electronics retailer said it was closing more than 150 stores and laying off thousands of workers.

Today, Circuit City filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Of course, the company got hit by the economy slowdown, but Circuit City also blames increasing competition from Best Buy and Wal-Mart. And one retail analyst says Circuit City made a huge mistake last year, when it fired its highest-paid but most knowledgeable sales people, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What does this mean for holiday shoppers? Are there going to be other stores closing?

ELAM: People are wondering about the deals here. Circuit City says it still has more than 500 stores open for business and they'll stay that way through the bankruptcy proceedings. Items in those stores will be priced competitively. But at the 155 stores closing down, Circuit City will be running big liquidation sales.

As far as Wall Street is concerned, an early rally well it faded as the auto sectors slide brought down the over all average, take a look. The Dow off 43 points, 8900 there, Nasdaq off 21 at 1625. So we're kind of near the flat line around this point Kyra, but we'll have to see what happens as we get closer to 4:00.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Stephanie.

Well, you can be sure that one person's paying close attention to the economic headlines today. The president-elect. What will an Obama administration do or not do for your wallet? Well I will ask one of his top advisers.

And under fire, under President Bush there will be a new day for the justice department when Barack Obama takes over the White House. We've got some of the names that he might be considering for Attorney General. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Ahead of todays meeting with President Bush in the oval office, a regular dad moment for Barack Obama. The president- elect dropped his daughters off at school this morning in Chicago. The two girls, Sasha and Malia, will be transferring, of course, in January when the Obama family moves into the White House. Our Chad Myers knows all about being a dad. He takes little Grant to school. His hair is all messed up like that, too.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. He does hate it when you kind of do the lick and try to get it down on the back of the head.

PHILLIPS: That's like Sarah Palin's daughter. She had a little lick across Willow's head. Got to love it.

MYERS: Good afternoon, Kyra. We'll talk about Paloma a dying hurricane here. It's a tropical depression if it's anything now. Just the clouds left over. What a busy hurricane season it was. This is from stormadvisory.org. I give a shout out to my favorite Websites every once in a while. This is one of them. Can you find Cuba on the map? No, because it's under all of the storm tracks. The first one, the big one that came through that really did a bunch of damage was this hurricane that came across here from west -- this was Ike at 121 miles per hour. Then Ike kept going, went back into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean here, and then ran across here. Look at this h- 4. That 4 means category 4. That was Gustav as it ran over the top.

Fay came across with rain. And then we had Paloma over the weekend. That's 138 to 140-mile-an-hour storm crisscrossing Cuba and they've been hit from all sides this year. I guess we're kind of thankful that hurricane season is just about over. It doesn't officially end for another 19 days, but good enough. It's now over the Caribbean making some rain showers over I would say probably the Bahamas and the Turks and Calicos. Not a record-breaking year by any stretch of imagination. A big season, but not a record-breaking one, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. We'll keep checking in. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well a historic president with a historic agenda, economy, education, war. Can Barack Obama overcome the challenges? Change, we all knows how Barack Obama stressed that word as he ran for the presidency. Now that he has won it is also the key word on the transition team's website. You can even go on line, let the president elect know what you think. We are going to tell you how.

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PHILLIPS: Right now, 2:30 eastern time. These are the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM. A grim bucket brigade clearing the scene of that deadly school collapse in Haiti. Crews are using sonar, cameras and dogs to search the rubble, but they haven't found anyone alive since early Saturday. At least 89 people killed in that collapse.

Wall Street's early rally has fizzled. The markets now struggling after more rough corporate news today. Right now, Dow Industrials down 58 points.

And President-elect Barack Obama is making his first official visit to the White House. He and his wife, Michelle, greeted by President Bush and the first lady. The wives will take a tour while Mr. Bush and his successor talk in the oval office.

Well, he had such a historic win, but he won't have much of a honeymoon. And Barack Obama wouldn't have it any other way as he tackles a historic agenda. Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Buckle up. Barack Obama's new team is dropping hints it will move fast on what would be a historically massive agenda with plans to take on the economy, health care, energy, and education. Those issues all linked, says Obama's transition co-chair, John Podesta.

JOHN PODESTA: These are all core economic questions and they need to be tackled together. I think he'll have a program and a strategy to move aggressively across all those fronts.

ACOSTA: Nearly the same message is coming from Obama's chief allies in the congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in crisis mode. We've got educational crises, we have health care crises, we have financial crises, we've got consumer protection problems. These things must be managed.

ACOSTA: That has some in Washington sounding a familiar alarm bell. Overreach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to tell me you're going to solve an incredibly difficult economic crisis at the same time you're going to raise, reorganizing 14 percent of the American economy, health care? I think that will be a gigantic overreach.

ACOSTA: But one democratic leader the number two in the House Steny Hoyer is down-playing expectations, saying obviously we're not going to do health care in the first month or two. Democrats have seen this movie before. Bill Clinton got elected on pocketbook issues only to get mired in a non-economic controversy over gays in the military. Republicans say they're determined to stop democrats from overplaying their hand this time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is going to be, I think, a willingness to try and get things done, but at the end of the day I think you will see a Republican Party in congress serving as a check and a balance against Mr. Obama's power and Speaker Pelosi's power.

ACOSTA (on camera): Obama's new team features top insiders in the Clinton administration who remember the perils of overreach well, but there's a phrase buzzing around Washington, the big bang, referring to the Obama transition teams to move aggressively on what could be big changes for the country. Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

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PHILLIPS: Well, tough questions, tough choices, and a tough road ahead. Barack Obama and his team face all three as they tackle the economic mess that we're in. Joining me now is one of those team members, Robert Reich who was labor secretary under President Clinton. He's now a professor of public policy at Berkeley and is Obama economic adviser. Robert, I saw you around that big table last week and I'm curious to know how did the conversation go? How did it feel? What were you thinking when you were looking at Barack Obama and looking around the table at all of those that he has chosen to advise him in this time right now?

ROBERT REICH, OBAMA ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, Kyra, I'm not at liberty to give you the content of the discussion, but I can tell you it felt both exhilarating and also solemn. Barack Obama, our president-elect, came into the room and got right to business. There wasn't much small talk. It was clear that he wanted to hit the ground running on January 20th and wanted the best advice he could possibly get.

PHILLIPS: He's not a small-talk type guy. Can you tell me at all the questions that maybe he asked you directly or some interesting questions that were posed at the table? Can you give me any type of insight that would make me, a tax-paying citizen, maybe a little more comfortable right now?

REICH: You should be very comfortable. We've hired, as it were, a president who is on top of his game. He understands already much of what he will need to understand, but he wanted to get an updated version of where the economy was and the meeting was primarily for the purpose of diagnosis. He asked, you know, what is the labor situation? What's happening on main street? What do we know the latest on what's happening in the financial markets? What can you tell me and what can you tell the vice president-elect, Joe Biden was also there, that will help guide our staffs who are also doing the transition? This group that he put together on Friday will be kind of a sounding board. This group will be reported to by the staff that he has put together to manage the specifics of the economic transition. Very, very able group of people.

PHILLIPS: All right, then let's do this. Ok, you can't tell me exact specifics. I'm going to pretend like I'm the president. That's laughable right there. I'm going to look at you my adviser and I'm going to say, OK, Robert Reich, how much money do I have to spend to keep this economy on track? We've already put out $700 billion in the bailout package. Tell me now how much more I'm going to need to spend.

REICH: Well, Kyra, I'm happy to share with you my personal views.

PHILLIPS: Share with me your personal views. REICH: My personal view is just one view among many. My personal view is that -- look, the economy looks like it's in a huge down draft right now. This is not a depression, but it's not just a typical recession, either. We are heading toward maybe next year 8 or 9 percent unemployment. If you consider all of the people who are underemployed, it could be 11 or 12 percent, I would say a major stimulus bill. We have to have infrastructure, we have to prepare roads and bridges and levees. We have to have public transportation as quickly as possible. We've got to get people into jobs. As quickly as possible we've got to get the economy moving again. I don't think I'm alone in that particular recommendation. That's certainly what I would say if you were president and you asked me.

PHILLIPS: That would be an interesting time. I think I'm scaring all my producers right now. Let me ask you another question then. If I were president, I looked at you and I said, OK, what sort of spending will have the most impact on jobs and income? Something that is completely on the hearts and minds of Americans right now.

REICH: Kyra, that's actually a very good question. There is a lot of debate generally among economists and the policy advisers on that question. Some people say the biggest multiplier in terms of getting a lot of jobs is infrastructure spending. Again, roads, bridges, levees, making sure that our whole system, our electrical system is up and running. Our electrical grid is better. Others say, wait a minute, that's going to take too much time to get that actually up and going, that kind of infrastructure spending takes at least 18 months, possibly two years. By that time a lot of people are unemployed. What can we do even more quickly? And the first group of people will say -- I'm not mimicking what happened at that -- that meeting on Friday. We didn't get into this. But in terms of the general debate, the people that talk about infrastructure and I heard one of them say there are a lot of things that we can do very, very quickly. There are a lot of projects that are on the boards that are on the shelf that need to be done. There are a lot of roads and a lot of bridges and a lot of rapid transit and a lot of energy projects that are ready to go. Get them going. And they have a tremendous job multiplier. Barack Obama also wants to provide a middle-class tax cut. That will be helpful. It may not create that many jobs because, after all, when people have more money in their pockets, chances are they're going to pay off their debts or they're going to buy products that maybe products from China or from other countries rather than from the United States, but nevertheless that will help.

PHILLIPS: Robert Reich, I can kind of read between the lines of what probably happened at that roundtable. Great talking to you.

REICH: Good to talk to you, Kyra. Bye-bye.

PHILLIPS: Well, change is a big word in Barack Obama's life. Now it's a big part of his transition team's website and you can be a part of it. Here is CNN's Alina Cho.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's called change.gov and it's the official website of the Obama transition team. It was up and running within 24 hours of the election. Now, right now, it's a little thin on content. It's new, after all, but there is a form you can fill out if you want to share your story about what the election meant to you. You can even share your vision for an Obama presidency. Looking for work? You can even apply for a job. How might all of this help Obama? We went to the experts behind techpresident.com. That's a website that tracks the online operations of the campaign.

ANDREW RASEIJ, FOUNDER, TECHPRESIDENT.COM: He now has his own special interest. He has a group of people that he can go to and ask them to participate in helping him pass his legislative agenda. I think the days of a -- just a Saturday morning radio address and an occasional press conference as the way the president speaks to the American public are over. I wouldn't be surprised if Barack Obama starts doing a weekly You Tube video and also fireside chats for the 21st century by allowing people to filter up questions to him that he might answer.

CHO: In fact President-elect Obama says he'll have a five-day online comment period before signing any non-emergency legislation. So you can be part of the process. He's also planning to appoint a chief technology officer. So why is he doing this? Well, listen to this. Obama had four times as many friends as John McCain on Myspace. Nearly 3 million supporters on Facebook. And he also put together a massive database of e-mail addresses. Some 10 million people. An enormous network. The reason he was so successful was simply put, more people are using the web. Makes sense, right? A Pew poll found that 46 percent of Americans use the internet, e-mail, or text to get information. Now, compare that to 39 percent who watch cable news. 34 percent who read newspapers daily and just 29 percent who watch the network news. And finally if you go to change.gov and look at upcoming events, only one listed so far. The inauguration on January 20th. Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Online brokers are selling tickets to the presidential inauguration. The problem is the tickets are supposed to be free and they aren't even available yet. Officials say the brokers are trying to get hold of the free tickets congressional staffers get and make a big profit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWART GANTMAN, JOINT CONG. CMTE., INAUGURAL CEREMONIES: There are no tickets available now. The tickets will be distributed less than a week before the event. We are going to be alerting all members of congress that it is against the code of ethics for staff or for members to sell these tickets to public.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Howard Gantman says that there is no guarantee that the brokers will end up with as many tickets as they sell. That means that some people could end up with a hotel room with a refund. Is a new day at the Justice Department about to begin? Barack Obama vows that it will be, and we have some names on a likely short list for the new attorney general. Our Sunny Hostin gives us the inside scoop.

And one of the most dangerous places on earth, we're going to take you to a U.S. combat outpost on the Afghan Pakistan border.

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PHILLIPS: The wiretapping of American citizens, Guantanamo, the firings of federal prosecutors. Just a few of what critics say are the sins of the Justice Department under the Bush administration. Barack Obama has vowed to set things right when he takes over the White House in January. He'll start by naming a new attorney general. Joining us now from New York with some possible names likely to be on that short list, she's been working all her sources, CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin. Good to see you Sunny.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hello Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Where do we start? Eric Holder?

HOSTIN: Well, you know, this is a big job. And most people don't understand the -- this is a cabinet position, appointed by the president, confirmed by the senate and the attorney general is the seventh in line to the president. The seventh in line for succession. And so it is a big job. I have to say I've spoken to many, many people and the top name that comes up over and over and over again is Eric Holder. Another name that comes up is the Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano and, of course, the Massachusetts governor, Duval Patrick. But most often, Eric Holder's name comes up. He is qualified. He used to lead the U.S. attorney's office in D.C., which is where I came from, joined it in 1998. He is the first African-American deputy attorney general, so he held the second top spot in the Justice Department. And he's -- as I mentioned, he's a former U.S. attorney and went to Columbia Law School, which is where Obama went to undergrad. They met in 2004, Eric and our president-elect, and they basically fell in love. They are very close, close friends. And everyone says really the job is his for the taking.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about him for a minute, because wasn't he involved in that controversial pardon at the end of the Clinton administration?

HOSTIN: You know, yes, he was Kyra and that is something of some concern. Certainly he testified in front of the senate committee about. Mark Rich was pardoned by Clinton on the last day of his administration. He had been indicted for tax evasion. He was pardoned in 2001. Eric was the deputy attorney general at this time. He has said had he to do it over again, he would have acted differently. He's learned from whatever mistakes he has alleged to have made. I have to say I don't think that's going to block his appointment or his confirmation by the senate. But of course it will come up. PHILLIPS: All right. I'm asking Eric Holder right now live on CNN if, indeed, he is the guy, he needs to give you the first interview and sit down with you since you know him well.

HOSTIN: I hope so, I know Eric. Eric, if you're listening, please give me the exclusive on that one.

PHILLIPS: Ok, there you go, it's out there. Do you want to talk for a minute about Governor Janet Napolitano and also Governor Duval Patrick and maybe talk about why these names are in the mix as well, Sunny?

HOSTIN: You know absolutely. Again as I've mentioned, we've got Governor Napolitano that comes up often. Her name is also floated as a possible supreme court appointee. She is a former U.S. attorney and to be the attorney general you really need to have that federal prosecutorial experience Kyra. She's Arizona's first female attorney general and I think that will give some sort of, you know, gender balance to Obama's cabinet should he choose her. Another name that pops up very often is the Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick. He is also said to be very, very good friends with our president-elect. He's a former assistant attorney general for civil rights, so another former federal prosecutor. But interestingly enough, he was the formal general counsel at Texaco and Coca-Cola, so it gives him that big business litigation which is important probably in this administration because we know that Obama ran his campaign as a business and is likely to use his business acumen as the president. So Duval Patrick is a name that comes up. I think if Eric Holder decides to take another job, perhaps White House counsel, then maybe we'll see Governor Duval Patrick come up for the spot.

PHILLIPS: All right, I'm looking to you. Too bad it's not you. You'd be fabulous in that position, but all right.

HOSTIN: I don't know why I'm not being considered.

PHILLIPS: Exactly. I mean second best, all right, Eric Holder, Duval, Napolitano. I look forward to the interview that you get with one of the three Sunny.

HOSTIN: I hope so.

PHILLIPS: If you have any legal questions for Sunny just email her at sunnyslaw@cnn.com or you can log on to ireport.com/sunny.

Now a rare look at one of the most dangerous places in the world. A frontier outpost in the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda militants. An exclusive report, our Barbara Starr travels with U.S. troops to an outpost on the Afghan Pakistan border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one of the most dangerous areas in the Afghanistan war. The border with Pakistan. We are in a heavily-armed helicopter with Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, landing on top of a 7,000-foot mountain peak. This is combat outpost Malakashy. Just a few dozen of Schloesser's 101st airborne division troops defend this tiny plot of land. CNN is the first news crew Schloesser has brought here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's Pakistan right there, that ridgeline right there, that ridgeline all along right over there.

STARR: All along these mountain passes are insurgent rat lines. Taliban and foreign fighters in Pakistan take these routes into Afghanistan. The soldiers try to stop them. Schloesser's men have been in fire fights with shockingly bold insurgents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came up here and they attacked this outpost.

STARR: We are sitting on sand bags on top of the guard tower. Underneath us, more soldiers keep their eyes and weapons trained on the border. Attacks are up 30 percent in this region since last year.

GEN. JEFFREY SCHLOESSER, U.S. ARMY: Still it's far more than I'm willing to accept.

STARR: Schloesser says foreign fighters crossing the border are better trained and better equipped than ever before. He has identified six areas in eastern Afghanistan where insurgents gather and train. Schloesser's message to President-elect Barack Obama, send more troops and deal with the problem on both sides of these violent mountains.

SCHLOESSER: The potential solution here is going to have to be a regional solution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all know that you're far out here on the edge.

STARR: Schloesser is one of the few generals who has already briefed Obama when he came to Afghanistan earlier this year. There's one thing he wants the president-elect to know about the men of combat outpost Malakashy.

SCHLOESSER: I would want him to know that at 7,500 feet with 40 pounds of gear on literally at the edge of the frontier that there are young Americans out here doing incredible things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.

STARR: Commanders here agree this war will not be won by more U.S. troops alone. It will take more Afghan troops and billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance. Barbara Starr, CNN, combat outpost Malakashy, Afghanistan.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE).

PHILLIPS: Rick Sanchez and his NEWSROOM team, busy lining things up for their show. Rick, what's going on next hour?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: You know, this is an interesting meeting that's going to be taking place today because it comes at a time when obviously the whole Obama thing is going to be historic and viewed that way by most. But at the same time, the president is now looking at disapproval ratings as high as any president in the history of these ratings, at least in terms of Gallup and CNN is concerned. Going back to WW II, maybe Truman, maybe Nixon were close, but they didn't quite get there. The republicans are going to be putting a lot f pressure on this new president not to be too excited about the post. It will be fun to watch to see what happens. We've got a lot of stuff, a lot of guests. Kyra, let me take it back to you.

PHILLIPS: How can you not get excited about the new post?

SANCHEZ: I'll tell you what, it's politics. It's passion for me.

PHILLIPS: Oh, lord. I will definitely move on now. Thank you, Rick Sanchez.

SANCHEZ: All right, thanks.

PHILLIPS: Brother, what a fight. A pew-clearing brawl breaks out at one of Christianity's holy sites. We'll see what got the monks so mad.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Mama Africa that was the sensational singer Miriam Makeba. Her sultry voice gave South Africans hope when the country was gripped by apartheid. Well she collapsed and died early today of a heart attack, doing just what she wanted to do. Singing on stage in Italy for a good cause. She was 76, but her ability to reach deep into the souls of South Africans led to her banishment from the country by the apartheid government for more than 30 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIRIAM MAKEBA: I knew I made African music universal. I'm the first artist to come out of the country and particularly from South Africa to go to Europe, America, and other countries. And sing the songs of my people and have people come by the thousands to just want to see this young African woman.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Makeba received a Grammy together with her dear friend Harry Belafonte in 1966. Her death sending shockwaves throughout South Africa and the rest of the world. We take you to break now with the beauty of her voice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)