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Canyon Fires Burn 100 Homes & Buildings in Colorado; Imam Breaks Silence; On the Road Listening to Voters; Democrats to Get Election Help from the White House; BP Shares Jump; Angelina Jolie Makes the Case for Pakistan

Aired September 08, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Live, from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Wednesday, September 8th, and it is a big day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEE SPENCER, LOST HOME TO FIRE: It still feels really surreal.

STEVE SPENCER, LOST HOME TO FIRE: It doesn't sink in. Until we see -- until we have visual confirmation by us, it's hard to sink in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: They are about to get it sunken in. Dozens of Colorado families wait to see if their homes are still standing. One family wondering where their son's wedding is going to be next week as out- of-control wildfires tear through rugged canyons outside of Boulder.

President Obama -- new tax cuts, new stimulus spending, anything to get the economy moving. And with the announcement later today, expect a fair amount of swiping at Republicans.

And for the first time on U.S. television, the New York imam behind that Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero will explain why he plans to go ahead with it. You'll see it live, only on CNN.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Drew Griffin. Tony Harris is off today.

Those stories and your comments, of course, right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Straight to our developing news. A hundred buildings destroyed or damaged, thousands of people forced from her homes. An 11-square- mile wildfire near Boulder, Colorado, is taking a devastating toll. Colorado's governor declaring a state of emergency as crews struggle to contain this thing.

CNN's Casey Wian joins us from Boulder with the latest.

Casey, this kind of sprung up on a lot of people.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really has. We're waiting for a news conference to begin any moment. Residents here are very anxious -- those evacuated residents very anxious to find out when they're going to be allowed back into their homes. Some of these residents are finding out that they're not going to have homes to return to.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN (voice-over): Steve and Dee Spencer built their home in the Colorado mountain community of Sunshine 25 years ago.

STEVE SPENCER, LOST HOME TO FIRE: It's 2,400 square feet, three bedroom, two bathroom. And we built it. And we, you know, designed it ourselves.

WIAN: Today, it lives only in their camera, reduced to ashes by Colorado's wildfire.

DEE SPENCER, LOST HOME TO FIRE: The sun was orange and sort of obscured. There is a really weird light from the fire, you know, in front of the sun.

S. SPENCER: Very eerie, very spooky.

D. SPENCER: It was all smoky.

WIAN: There's never a good time to lose your house. But this is particularly bad for the Spencers.

S. SPENCER: I was working on a deck because we were landscaping and building an outdoor setting for our son's wedding which, you know, is a week and a half from now.

D. SPENCER: The reception dinner was going to be at our house.

WIAN: Then came the reverse 911 call, instructing the Spencers to evacuate.

S. SPENCER: We very casually packed up the important things that we value which turned out wasn't very much. We would have packed more but, you know --

D. SPENCER: We kind of thought they were going to go back.

WIAN (on camera): When did you find out that your house was actually in trouble?

D. SPENCER: Last night.

S. SPENCER: Last night, one of our neighbors called and said that she had a call from somebody who stayed in Sunshine and had a walked and saw the house burned to the ground.

D. SPENCER: It still feels really surreal.

S. SPENCER: It doesn't sink in, you know, until we see -- until we have visual confirmation by us, it's hard to sink in. WIAN (voice-over): That may take days.

D. SPENCER: Let's go see our new house.

WIAN: The Spencers already are looking for a local house to rent, one with space for their son's wedding reception.

D. SPENCER: Both of our sons, Dustin and Noah, said, you know, we have each other and our family is safe. We're close. So, it's important.

S. SPENCER: Our youngest son who is a junior in college, when we called him last night to tell him the house burned down, he paused and said, "Bummer."

For every end, there is a new beginning. And I don't want to diminish it all or of the joy of this marriage because, you know, a couple special people who found love and are going to celebrate that. And that's what we're going to focus on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: Clearly, it's early, but the Spencers say they probably plan to rebuild in the same area, but this time a more fireproof home. They also do have fire insurance, so hopefully the financial blow for them will be not too severe.

GRIFFIN: Casey, you look like you're in downtown Boulder and the winds are calm. But is this still blowing up there? Is there still a threat for more homes in danger?

WIAN: Well, the last briefing we had is there is still the possibility of more evacuations. No new evacuations have been ordered.

One thing I can tell you is that the humidity was up overnight, which is good news. The winds were down overnight, and there's been a forecast of 30 percent chance of showers this afternoon. So those are all positive signs. But again, we're waiting for that news conference to happen any moment to get more details from fire officials as to what conditions are like up on the mountain.

GRIFFIN: All right.

Casey Wian, live in Boulder, Colorado.

Thanks, Casey.

(NEWSBREAK)

GRIFFIN: Well, the imam behind a controversial plan to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center just blocks from Ground Zero says the project is going forward. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf broke his silence in an op-ed for today's "New York Times."

CNN's Deb Feyerick joins us from New York. The imam came out today and said the mosque is going to be built. Can this be perceived as an act of defiance?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting, because I spoke with the developer about a month ago and I asked him the same question. I said, you know, "You're going ahead. Is this really an olive branch?" And he said it is indeed an olive branch, that there is a need for this kind of center to be built now, there's a need for conversation, there's a need for dialogue, there's a need to correct the misperceptions of what Islam is all about.

And, you know, you mentioned that preacher. What's interesting is that he said that he's going to burn the Koran against radical Islam. Well, this Islamic center and prayer space at Ground Zero is not about radical Islam. It is about the moderate, mainstream Islam.

And that's the focus, that's what they're doing. And they say it does, it has to be built now -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: You know, Deb, I read that article today, or op-ed that he wrote. What I didn't get from it is exactly what this thing is going to be.

He's talking about a Christian center, a Jewish center, a space for Islamic prayer, a swimming pool. It seems like the plans are all over the map. And then there was a promise to tell us about the financing at some later time.

Is this just a project that's kind of moving along in pieces, there's no real definite plan right now?

FEYERICK: No, there is a definite plan. There is a focused blueprint. They have architectural drawings that are already in place.

There's a big debate as to whether they were going to be able to tear down the existing structure. They did get approval to do so.

It's going to be about 12 to 13 stories, and it is going to be all-encompassing. So you are going to have really a community center.

You're going to have an art space, you're going to have a basketball court, a swimming pool, very much like the YMCA, the YMHA, those kinds of things. You're also going to have prayer space.

And you noted something that's very, very interesting. Initially, when I had asked the developer, "Why not make this sort of an interfaith prayer space?" he said because the need, the demand now down in that part of town was for a Muslim prayer space.

They do seem to have changed their position on that, saying that there will be a prayer space now for Christians and for Jews, and also for people of all different faiths. So they do seem to have moved in a direction making that more encompassing, not just the sort of Muslim prayer space or mosque. GRIFFIN: All right, Deb. Thanks a lot. I know you're following this and you will be watching this tonight.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is going to appear exclusively on tonight's "LARRY KING LIVE," where he'll talk to CNN's Soledad O'Brien, tonight at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN, his first U.S. television interview.

And we're pleased to announce Piers Morgan will be taking over the primetime slot in January. Most of us in the United States know Piers as the tough but playful judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent," but he also has a long career in journalism in the U.K.

Once again, CNN is welcoming Piers Morgan. A little bit of inside breaking news there.

The CNN Election Express is on the road, and our reporters are listening to your concerns about government and the economy. We're going to check in with T.J. Holmes. He is in Kentucky today.

And Rob Marciano tracking weather.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this may be another visitor from overseas. That's Igor. It just formed off the coast of Africa. Hopefully it doesn't get all the way here.

We'll update you on that, plus the flooding rains from Tropical Storm Hermine.

We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Fifty-five days until the midterm elections. We're counting. The CNN Election Express is on the road this week listening to your concerns, and today's stop is Covington, Kentucky. Now, that's where we find our T.J. Holmes, who has been talking with people about those people in Washington, whether they are helping or hurting us.

Right, T.J.?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you talked about listening to their concerns. They don't think the concerns are being heard enough by the folks in Washington, D.C. I wish, really, Drew, we could have packed up every member of Congress and brought them on this trip with us, and sat them down and not let them talk to their constituents, but make them listen to their constituents.

We haven't found a lot on this trip. This is the third day now. It was, Pennsylvania, then Ohio yesterday, then Kentucky here today. Not a lot of politics, quite frankly, in what we're hearing. Not even a lot of anger.

What we're hearing is a lot of disappointment, a lot of hurt. They feel like they have been promised one thing out of Washington time and time again, and then they're getting something else.

So, it has really been striking to listen to these folks, and it's been sobering. They're just hurt, quite frankly, and disappointed by what's happening out of there.

We were able to find a small business yesterday, talked to the small business owner and also a couple of her patrons. This was at a local bar. They have plenty neighborhood bars here in Covington, Kentucky.

But just a sit-down about what they need. And we talked about stimulus and if another stimulus could help.

Here are their opinions at least on it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Do you find the government intrusive, like it's in your life too much?

DIANE GAMBLE, OWNER, ROSIE'S TAVERN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GAMBLE: I do.

HOLMES: How so?

GAMBLE: That's all I ever do is write checks for the government.

(LAUGHTER)

GAMBLE: I need those checks.

HOLMES: Did the stimulus help out, would you all say, the last year passed?

MATTHEW ROBINSON, COVINGTON RESIDENT: It helped out temporarily.

HOLMES: Temporary?

ROBINSON: I think it was a temporary fix. It might have been necessary at the time. I don't know. Who knows? It's all hindsight.

GAMBLE: I got a $1,500 credit. I had to put new furnace on.

ROBINSON: I didn't get any.

HOLMES: So it helped you out, huh?

GAMBLE: I still owe the government.

(LAUGHTER)

GAMBLE: But I got the $1500. I put in here. I don't know how it helped. OK? ROBINSON: We have taxpayers around here sponsored through the federal government. It was great deal that are first time home buyers. But once that -- once that dried up, no one's buying a house. They're waiting for the next one. So if you continue to wait for the government every time for some help, it causes a lag in what's going on with the businesses.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, I talked about -- not a lot of Democrat/Republican back and forth we're finding out here just talking to voters. But there is some of that.

If people are on one side or the other, they'll certainly let you know that. This is a good example here.

I was just handed -- our photographer, Oliver, just handed this button here. And it says -- if you can't see it -- but it says, "Tea parties are for little girls with imaginary friends."

Now that's a part of the politicking and the Democrat/Republican, that type of back and forth. We're not finding a whole lot of that. We're finding folks just like the ones you heard from there you sit down with, and they're just talking about their disappointment with Washington.

And Drew, it's disheartening, and I've used that word several times this morning and on this trip, because that's what it's been like. The woman in there, Diane, who owns that bar that we were sitting in, she said to me several times when I tried to get her to talk something about politics, she just said, "I do what I'm told."

That is not the attitude that voters should have. They don't feel like they have a say. They certainly have a stake, but no say in what's happening in this country and in Washington, D.C. So, kind of disappointing, quite frankly, Drew, in a lot of some of what we've been hearing out here on the trail.

GRIFFIN: Interesting, T.J. I was in Pennsylvania yesterday, and I travel like you do, all around the country, and I hear the same thing. It's, like, not a choice between Democrats and Republicans. A lot of these people feel they have no choice because neither party really understands what they're going through.

HOLMES: And that's so, so disappointing, it really is, to hear that from folks. And we have some people -- I talked about a gentleman 50 years old. He has never voted, never will. He just hates the process.

Talked to another gentleman in that same bar that we saw there. He said the same thing. He said, "I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to get on camera. I'm not involved. I'm not going to vote. I'm not going to register."

We should not have that attitude in this country. It's not their fault that they feel this way. It's what they see every single day coming out of Washington, D.C. And so we are trying to get those voices out as much as possible. Maybe somebody in D.C. will hear something, it will trigger, and maybe something will happen, but, Drew, it is -- it can be really disappointing to talk to folks out here.

GRIFFIN: Well, T.J., I'll tell you, CNN is on in a lot of offices in Congress, so maybe they will at least hear the people through us.

HOLMES: Yes, you're right.

GRIFFIN: Let's hope that works.

T.J., thanks, in Kentucky this morning.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks.

GRIFFIN: Well, while we're bringing you news from around the world, we are also watching "What's Hot" online. Ines Ferre surfing the Web.

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Drew.

Yes, check this out. This is from CNN.com.

Authorities today trying to figure out who left a threatening message scrawled on an airplane bathroom mirror. And feds searched the aircraft, said the threat wasn't credible.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

GRIFFIN: We're going to check our top stories now.

A New York imam is defending an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero. See the interview, his only U.S. interview on TV, with CNN's Soledad O'Brien. That's tonight at 9:00, as we said.

BP releases its own report on the April explosion that led to that oil spill, the worst in U.S. history. The company says no single event caused the blast. It spreads blame to the rig owner, Transocean, and cement contractor Halliburton.

And Iran is putting the execution of this woman on hold. She is facing death by stoning for adultery. Iran's regime, under international pressure to call off the execution, says the woman's sentence is under review.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: The imam behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque says the project will go ahead as planned. The controversy over the location has been heated, angry, emotional -- you know it -- sparking what some are calling a rise of anti-Muslim sentiment just three days before the ninth anniversary of September 11th.

And in Florida, one pastor promises to spend Saturday burning copies of the Koran. I sat down with another New York imam, Imam Shamsi Ali, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, to get his take on this so-called Islamophobia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Do you feel welcomed here?

IMAM SHAMSI ALI, SPIRITUAL LEADER, ISLAMIC CULTURAL CENTER OF NEW YORK: Yes, of course. People have asked me, "Do you think America is Islamaphobic?" I say, No."

There might be cases around that you find some people it looks like do not welcome us, but this is not the true face of America. America is very tolerant, very much friendly to the Muslim community.

And I think it's not only the case of the Muslim community. All are embraced. And I think I have to defend that because this is justice, and I have to be just to myself. So I feel that I'm very much embraced and welcomed here in this country.

GRIFFIN: And let me ask you one heated question. Do you embrace the location of that Islamic center? Have you said?

ALI: You know, for me, the issue is not about location right now. The issue is about, do we have a right to practice religion? Because the debate right now is not -- in my view, it's not necessarily the location anymore.

It is about the same group who opposed and inflamed sentiments of the people in the area. Basically, the same group who opposed the mosque in Memphis and California and Staten Island. So I'm just worried that the issue is not the location, though it might create some insensitivity to the families' victims. But again, I think the discussion has been larger than that, and that's why I wanted to make sure that we do everything else right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: 1.8 million tons of steel and debris cleared away, thousands of workers spent every day rebuilding. This Friday we are going to take you on a tour of the World Trade Center site. You'll see it like never before and hear from the people who are bringing it back from the unforgettable devastation.

It's "Ground Zero, Up Close," only on CNN NEWSROOM Friday with Tony Harris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: About three hours from now in Cleveland, the president's going to outline new plans to pump life into the recovery. Today's proposal, along with others he's made in the past few days, adds up to $350 billion in new stimulus, most tax cuts, tax credits, road building. But will small business owners see a lot of bang for their buck in the short term? What about long term?

We're going to ask two of them. Mike Ghilotti, who owns a construction company in San Rafael, California, he joins me on Skype. And in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this morning, Jim Zawacki; he manufacturers springs and connector parts for machinery.

Jim, I want to start with you because number one, you're in hard- hit Michigan. Number two, you've been hiring workers.

Tell me what your outlook is at this moment your history of your business.

JIM ZAWACKI, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: Well, fortunately, we are almost 100 percent automotive suppliers, and our business is good. We have hired 100 workers. And if you were to ask me about what the president or whoever should do about our economy, I'd say the laws of economics have taken over -- supply and demand with high foreclosures, high unemployment, people aren't spending.

But a couple things we could do is one, both sides of the aisle don't understand how important manufacturing is to this economy. They've ignored it for too many years. We've lost so many jobs. So one thing we could do is, one, we should have a new secretary post of manufacturing so we could highlight that. And then we got to start talking about fair trade versus free trade. We've lost all of these jobs and all of the social benefits that go with it.

The second thing we can do is the president could show by cutting costs - "USA Today" on August 10th on the front page the business section said that government employees with benefits and wages average $123,000 a year while the private sector is $61,000. This is ridiculous.

If I were to retire today -- and I've been in manufacturing full time for 49 years -- I would not get for my pension plan that would not even last 10 years at 75,000 a year. I know that sounds like a lot but I've been at this for 50 years.

GRIFFIN: Jim, I want to get to Mike real quick, but you voted, Jim, for McCain and he's the guy who came to Michigan and said, look, some of these manufacturing jobs just aren't coming back.

Do you believe the jobs could come back if we rolled back things like NAFTA, the free trade agreement?

ZAWACKI: You know, Mexico never scared me. It's the other ultra-low-cost countries.

Both sides of the aisle, both administrations did nothing for manufacturing. What we have to do now is we got to start talking fair trade. There should a boarder tax for all of those people that are importing things here. And half of our unfavorable trade balance is caused by U.S. multi-national corporations. They should be paying for this. The importers that are bringing this stuff in, taking jobs away from U.S. companies.

GRIFFIN: Mike, let me bring you in. Your family has survived through a heck of a lot. You're an immigrant success story. You guys have been through early earthquakes, depressions in San Francisco, world wars in San Francisco.

You're a construction company, right? Are you guys surviving this, and is there anything that government can do to help your business or do you think government should kind of get out of the way?

MIKE GHILOTTI, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: Well, the first challenge we have is that we've got environmental challenges, regulations, red tape. We've got projects that are on the drawing boards for 10 years, 15 years, that we can't get to even if the stimulus money is there. And that's one of the big challenges in California. There's a lot they can do.

But the plan from Obama to do a long-term investment in infrastructure is great, but it doesn't help the short term. The short-term money they spent really wasn't as effective as they hoped for a number of reasons. And I'll tell you, these long-term investments, if they don't clear the road with environmental challenges and everything else, can end up in a long-term delay and they're not going to realize any benefit out of this.

GRIFFIN: Let me ask you guys both this question because I hear it a lot from small business owners, some of them friends of mine, who are reluctant to hire because, number one, they're really not sure what their tax outlook is going to be next year and the years beyond And, number two, they have no idea what health care will look like for any employees they hire. So they're very reluctant to bring people on, at least bring them on full time.

Mike, does that ring a bell?

GHILOTTI: Absolutely. As small business owners such as us, have no confidence in the direction of economy is going. The uncertainty about the tax issues. We just don't have the confidence to invest in the economy right now and that's the biggest challenge. There's no clear message coming from the government, from Obama, on where we're headed, and how we can plan to get there.

GRIFFIN: All right, guys, we had a panel of three, and number three just showed up, Eric Cassaburi, small business owner in New York who runs fitness centers.

Have I got that right, Eric?

Yes. Hi Drew, how are you?

GRIFFIN: Hey, I'm good. Thanks for jogging in this morning. It's a tough scale.

We were talking about what the outlook is and whether or not the package that President Obama and the Democrats have unveiled already, and are going to unveil today, is going to help you make decisions on whether or not to expand or hold back on any future hiring or development.

ERIC CASSABURI, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: Well, it's been an interesting conversation amongst my owners, my franchisees, and in the Retrofitness offices, as well. We've been gone back and forth. We benefitted from the SBA portion of the Recovery Act in 2009, but that just recently expired.

We were kind of hopeful that be we were hopeful they would add that back into whatever reform is headed in our direction. There was a waiver of the SBA fee with that, as well as a 90 percent guarantee on most loans that would help banks feel more comfortable about lending to small business owners in a start-up environment.

GRIFFIN: Are you guys disappointed that the stimulus has not led to anything more long-lasting? Mike?

GHILOTTI: Very disappointed. Especially in the infrastructure industry and construction. It had great potential.

The problem was, they were looking for quick results. They wanted to report that it was doing all of these wonderful things. The way they set up criteria for what jobs they were going to spend money on limited it to a certain type of job, basically overlaying and repaving roads. 67 percent of the costs of those types of jobs goes to material. It doesn't go to labor.

So they really set it up for a short-term, quick hit. They relied on the economy to come along and take over. And, you know, small business isn't confident and that's really what's going to turn around the economy and they haven't stepped up.

So they're caught in the middle now. They're talking about doing long-term. They were doing short-term before. I don't think anybody know what their plan is and where they're headed.

GRIFFIN: Eric, your business is somewhat dependent on discretional income, whether or not people have the luxury to work out in your facilities or not. So you're reading a different kind of tea leaf, the actual consumer.

Do you see any confidence there?

CASSABURI: Traditionally, fitness is usually left for disposable income. We actually engaged our business model for the low-cost provider, where we actually charge reduced rates for gym memberships of $19.99 a month and we timed it with the recession. Frankly it made us extremely popular because it was something that was almost a necessity, for people to continue exercising, for it to be affordable. So our model laid out well.

Our costs to build a club hasn't changed, our costs for equipment hasn't changed, so quite frankly, any incentive we can get from tax- incentives business-wise benefits our owners. It makes them want to open up more gyms, it makes them want to do more advertising, want to spend more money. These are tax cuts are essential for small business owners like myself, like my franchisees, to continue growing. We have seen a stalemate - it's almost stopped the pipeline for gyms to continually grow fast as we were. We've put on 60 something clubs inside of two years quickly when things were going well. All of a sudden the banking started to freeze up. It's completely changed how we have approached opening a new gym.

We're renegotiating again, and we're back with talking to all different types of lenders, creative leasing. We're trying to do all kinds of things to help our owners get moving forward in the progress of opening a new store. We open a new store, we open 20, 30 new employees. It helps us. We stimulate an area when we come in with three or four new gym. It helps --

GRIFFIN: Eric --

CASSABURI: It puts a lot of other people to work. The marketing company, et cetera.

GRIFFIN: Eric, Mike and Jim; small business owners literally, from across this country. We talked about Congress not listening. We hope they are listening to you guys, as well, this morning, as we wait to hear from the President.

Thanks for joining us, guys.

And we will hear from the president today at 2:10 Eastern, we're told. And you can watch it, of course, live here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Our top stories now.

A major fire near Boulder, Colorado. It's a wildfire driven thousands of people from their homes, 100 homes damaged or destroyed, the flames scorches more than 7,000 acres out there.

BP is laying out the blame for the explosion that caused the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Pointing fingers, the company's investigation finding multiple contributing factors, among them, faulty cement from one company, a misread pressure test, and a poorly maintained blowout preventer. The report places much of the blame on the rig's owner, which is Transocean, and the cementing contractor, which is Halliburton.

The Imam building the mosque near ground zero is breaking his silence. He says he intends to go ahead with the plans. We are going to hear from him tonight at 9:00 Eastern, in an exclusive television interview on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE." Soledad O'Brien is going to have that.

And we're pleased to announce that Piers Morgan is will be taking over Larry's time slot -- primetime slot -- at 9:00 in January. Most of us in the United States know piers as the tough but playful judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent," but also have a long career of journalism in the UK. Once again, CNN welcomes Piers Morgan

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Time now nor your "CNN Equals Politics" update. We get it from CNN editor Mark Preston, part of "The Best Political Team on Television" and the web, I should say, Mark. He joins us from Washington.

You have been reporting that the DNC chairman, Tim Kaine, is making an appeal to those base voters for the Democrats, you better get out this fall.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes. You know, Drew, there's been a lot of talk about how President Obama is kryptonite, but in fact, President Obama is very important to these midterm elections. Tim Kaine is in Philadelphia today, he going to make an appeal to those Obama voters, those ones who came out in 2008 to come out and vote again in 2010. They really need that for the midterm election, all of those candidates in Congress.

But in addition to that, I just got off the phone with the Democratic Governors Association, they did a strategy call, Drew. They talked about how they actually have a chance against this republican wave that seems to be sweeping the nation to win some big contests.

And in fact, the White House has a bit of a part in this. In fact, listen to this from the strategy memo that just came out in the last hour, Drew. Quote, "If the White House can reenergize 2008 voters to turn out, we have a real opportunity to win close races in key states." So, Drew, guess what, the White House has a big stake in these midterm elections.

GRIFFIN: Yes, but does the White House have a plan, I guess, is the question? That sounds like a lot of wishful thinking.

PRESTON: Well, you know, they'll argue they do, but in fact, we see Obama on the campaign trail already, Drew. Expect to see him more in the next couple of weeks.

GRIFFIN: Hey, I got to ask you about this Sarah Palin making Megan McCain cry. I'm skeptical anytime we talk about something about Sarah Palin, most times people get it wrong. But what is this?

PRESTON: Well, Drew, I mean, you know Sarah Palin just as well as anyone. You spent a lot of time up in Alaska, you got to know her dad and you got to know the Palins very well.

But listen to what Megan McCain has to say in her new book, "Dirty Sexy Politics." This is -- our colleague Alex Mooney (ph) wrote a story on the CNN Political Ticker, let's take a quick look at it right here.

She talks about in her book the fact that she cried when she found out that Sarah Palin was chosen as the running mate because she didn't know who she was. And, of course, last night, she was on "The Jay Leno Show," she talked a little bit about her book. I don't want to give away too much, so our viewers, go to CNNpolitics.com, check out the Political Ticker, you can read a little bit more about what Megan McCain had to say about Sarah Palin.

GRIFFIN: All right, Mark, thanks a lot. I think I'm going to do that, I've got to figure that one out. Thanks a lot.

PRESTON: Thanks, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Your next political update in an hour from now. And we want to remind you, for the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNpolitics.com. Read about Megan McCain crying.

After the oil company's dark summer, BP's bottom line is brightening. The CNN Money Team will show us next.

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GRIFFIN: More than four months ago, analysts were wondering if BP would be able to survive the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. There was talk of bankruptcy or a buyout, now a new report says things have changed. Alison Kosik is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with details.

Alison, a lot of people have been buying, selling this stock. What's the outlook today?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they really have, Drew. And if you think about it, what you said is really true. I mean, I remember when the oil spill was at its height and traders here, no joke, were taking bets on whether BP was going to file for bankruptcy, who was going to take over BP, and now people are trading back into the stock.

And right now BP's outlook is stable, that's at least according to ratings agency Fitch. In fact, Fitch upgraded BP today up three notches. And a rating is important for a company because it really speaks to the financial strength of a company. It really makes it easier and cheaper for BP to borrow money.

It also helps with their public relation, which obviously has taken a huge hit. The company not such an outcast anymore, at least not in the investment community.

Now BP shares, on this news, have taken a jump today, up more than 3 percent. I want you to show this chart, though, that we have to show you how the stock has been since April. It's really made a steep decline since that explosion in the Gulf. You know, the stock is worth half its value since it was in April.

But Fitch is being bit optimistic. It's saying the sock is really in this recovery mode, that there really is not more threat of any leaks from the Macondo well. And Fitch says that BP has cash on hand to take care of any liabilities that may come its way -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, Alison, thank you so much. Here is what we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Mammograms, they helps save lives by detecting breast cancer while it's still treatable, but we'll tell you about a very disturbing case that may have put women's lives at risk.

And close encounters with a pair of asteroids. One has already buzzed the Earth, the second one on the way. Josh Levs is going to take a close look at what is coming.

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GRIFFIN: Actress Angelina Jolie is pleading for the world to help Pakistan's 20 million flood victims. She is visiting that country in her role as an envoy for the U.N. Jolie suggests Pakistan, it suffers from an image problem in the West, but she says allegations of corruption should not prevent people from donating.

She traveled to Pakistan after seeing reports right here on CNN from Dr. Sanjay Gupta and she spoke with Dr. Gupta a few hours ago in a CNN exclusive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You bring so much awareness to what's happening there. Why do you think people haven't paid as much attention to what's happening in Pakistan?

ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: I think people have a fatigue in general when it comes to disaster relief. But if I can say that the thing that I've learned the most in being here is that we tend to focus on one issue at a time because that seems to be what people can absorb and care for, but the Pakistan, as you know, is so complex because it has not just the people from the flood and the 18 million affected now, but it still has the 1.7 million Afghan people who are here and they've been displaced from the flood.

GUPTA: And you may have found this as well in your travels, that we tend to think of these places as over there. Somewhere else, not here. But when you go and I was there as well, you meet people. There are real faces and story behind these crazy high numbers.

Raimond (ph) and Zynua Goll (ph) are two people that you met. Tell me about them. How do you meet them? What did they tell you?

JOLIE: We go to these places and you always -- you always say the same things to the viewer, which is that they would be so moved if they were here and it's so true. And if they met all these children who are so resilient and are still children and so full of life and love and hope, and it's always so moving.

And this was a very unique for me because I met this beautiful older couple who are in their 70s and they worked their whole lives. And the man had been in the Pakistani military twice and he had then lived off the pension, and with that small pension he built this home and his family and for his grandchildren and it was very modest to begin with, but he had something. And now they're both dealing with a lot of sickness and as we see, I believe, in the tape, the woman is so embarrassed with her situation. She -- and the man spoke of the fact that he never felt in his lifetime he's ever going to be able to recuperate what he's lost. That he would never ever have again nice things, that he would never have a nice bed, a nice house. And she -- they lived in this place since 1972 and raised their children and their grandchildren there are. And in a moment, in a few hours, it was completely gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: You can impact your world 24/7 if you go to CNN.com/Impact, you get the latest developments on the Pakistan flood disaster. You'll also find suggestions on where you might be able to help the victim we just showed you.