Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Democrats Focus on Damage Control; DNA Testing to Find Your Ancestors; 747 at Golden Gate Bridge

Aired October 19, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: It's 2:00 on the East Coast. Here's what I have got on the "Rundown."

The election is two weeks away. We'll tell you why John Boehner is such is a good bet to get the title "Mr. Speaker."

Plus, the strikers are getting bolder in France. Will the French president have to back down?

And step by step, helping the poor by collecting shoes.

Well, two weeks can be a mighty long time in politics, but for dozens of incumbent Democrats, this year's midterms are coming on all too fast. Election Day is 14 days from right now, except in all those states where the election has already started.

Every state that you see highlighted on that wall is a state that has started early or absentee voting. And that means that every day between now and November 2nd, the pool of available voters is getting smaller, the pool who can still be swayed one way or the other.

So, now does that mean that the campaigning is going to drop off between now and November 2nd? No.

If you're keeping score at home, there are 37 Senate seats up for grabs. As you know, they only come up once every six years. They alternate, so every two years another batch comes up.

There are 37 up for grabs. The Republicans would need to win 10 of the 37 in order to gain control of the House.

Now, the handicappers over at Rothenberg Political Report are predicting a Republican pickup of six to eight seats. Now, that means they are not likely to take control of the Senate, but the sands shift very frequently here.

Let's move it over to the House. There are 435 seats up for grabs in the House, every last one of them. But really only about 100 are considered to be in play.

I say "only" because -- but the 100 is much more than actually would typically be in play. Republicans would need 39 seats. They need to pick up 39 in order to take the House. And the Rothenberg folks expect that they'll do that. They expect that they'll get 40 to 50 seats. So you're likely to see the House go Republican based on today's analysis. But the Senate not necessarily so.

Here's how it might play out. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHAN GONZALES, ROTHENBERG POLITICAL REPORT: It's going to be an ugly election night for Democrats. We just don't know quite how bad it's going to be.

I think the challenge hidden in that 100 competitive seats is another key number in that 91 of those 100 competitive seats are currently held by a Democrat, while nine of those are currently held by a Republican. So Democrats are dramatically on defense.

And I think that it's -- the challenge is that 50 number may not even be the cap for Republicans. We're still waiting to see how these final messages play out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, if you want proof that the Democrats are playing defense, the happy warrior himself, Joe Biden, campaigning today not in typically Republican states so he can be on the offensive, not even in tossup states, but in states where Democrats ought not be concerned. He is in Washington State for embattled Democratic Senator Patty Murray, and he's also campaigning in California for embattled Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

Former President Bill Clinton is in Florida. He's campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek. Now, Meek is running far behind the Republican candidate and behind the Tea Party candidate, Marco Rubio.

This is day two of the fourth bus tour for the Tea Party Express, and they are still in Nevada. Now, talk about playing offense, that's what they're doing.

The Tea Partiers want to oust Nevada's Democratic senator, who you know is the current Senate majority leader, Harry Reid. At a kickoff rally yesterday in Reno, the movement's biggest name had some fighting words for Democrats, but also for Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FMR. ALASKA GOVERNOR: Hey, politicians who are in office today, you -- some of you need to man up and spend some political capital to support the Tea Party candidates instead of doing this, waiting to see how everything is going to go. You know that the Tea Party candidates are constitutionalists. They've got the common sense.

So some of these politicians, the bigwigs within the machine, they're driving me crazy because they're too chicken to come out and support the Tea Party candidates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: That Tea Party bus tour, by the way, is not the only bus out there. With elections just around the corner, you better believe the CNN Election Express, which is a bigger, somewhat fancier bus, is on the move. And on it, in Aiken, South Carolina, is the one and the only T.J. Holmes.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a pretty good intro there, Ali. I don't know if I can live up to it. It makes me sound like I'm a prize fighter out here about to go at it.

But it is a fight. And the prize, apparently, to a lot of these politicians is to be able to retain their jobs and get a job in Washington, D.C.

We have to remind ourselves, this is essentially what we're going through, is a job interview process for these candidates. But what you find here, what we found in Aiken, and what you find in other places is that the voters think that once we give them the job, they forget who they're working for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD SHARP, RETIREE: I really hate the split that we have between Democrats and Republicans. I mean, they're elected to represent us.

TOM CANIGLIA, REALTOR: The problem is, I don't think it's Republican or Democratic. The problem is politicians.

They're busier fighting each other, fighting the parties, instead of paying attention to what's going on. And they would rather have someone lose of the opposite party than do something that's actually going to help the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, Ali, as you know, we're just getting started on this tour. This is our third stop, just second day, but third stop. Started in Charlotte, stopped in Columbia, South Carolina, and then here we are in Aiken.

And so far, the theme that we're finding so far, is that young people, despite whatever rally you may see the president hold, and enthusiastic young people on a college campus, young people are not engaged at all right now in this midterm. Secondly, we are starting to see that a lot of the tone you're seeing out of Washington is starting to permeate locally as well, where a lot of people are on one side or the other, and it doesn't seem like there's any compromise or anybody willing to give anything.

Who knows what we'll find continued down the road, Ali, but so far those are things we're picking up on this week's road trip. VELSHI: Hey, let's compare this to 2008. Things were different on a number of levels, including the fact that we were in the throes, the worst of that financial crisis. But young people seemed to like Barack Obama's message in particular, the idea of a green energy future, the idea of a candidate who seemed to appeal to them.

That seems to be lost in the idea of midterm elections. There's no central candidate, there's no central point around which to rally, and they're not really that interested in rallying around political parties.

HOLMES: Yes. And we always have to remind ourselves as well, historically, midterms, you see a lower turnout no matter what.

VELSHI: Sure, for everybody.

HOLMES: And historically, no matter what election it is, young people are not going to turn out anyway to vote, no matter if it's a midterm, no matter if it's a presidential election. But they came out for Barack Obama.

They could see it. They could touch it. They could hear the hope and change. They could see what they were exactly doing.

It's not necessarily working just yet to hear this same president they voted for saying, hey, I need you to vote again so I can commit now and I can come through on all that promise and hope and change. That message is not quite working, at least from what we're seeing from these young people.

VELSHI: All right. T.J., good to see you, as always. Thanks very much.

T.J. Holmes in Aiken, South Carolina.

HOLMES: Good to see you, Ali.

VELSHI: Hey, where are you going to be tomorrow? Do you know?

HOLMES: Tomorrow we're heading to Macon, Georgia. From there, Jacksonville, Florida. From there, Tampa, Florida, where, of course, Candy Crowley is going to be doing the senatorial debate on Sunday.

So, still, we're just getting rolling.

VELSHI: All right. Very good. Show me some stuff inside the bus tomorrow. Remember, I miss that bus.

HOLMES: You miss the bus. All right. I promise we'll give it to you.

VELSHI: All right, T.J. Good to see you, my friend.

T.J. Holmes in Aiken, South Carolina.

Hey, President Obama says a key step in helping the U.S. compete in the global economy is keeping Hispanics in school. He backs up his words with a new executive order. You're looking at a live picture right now of everybody assembling ready to hear the president. Signing just moments away.

Details right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. I'm a big family history guy. Tracing your family history can often end in roadblocks, especially for black Americans. But get this -- DNA testing could get you a well-rounded picture of your ancestry.

CNN's Stephanie Elam gave it a try, and here's what she discovered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm going on a journey to find my roots by taking DNA tests from three different companies: AfricanAncestry.com, 23andMe, and Ancestry.com. The question is, will these tests give me the same results?

JOANNA MOUNTAIN, SR. RESEARCH DIR., 23 AND ME: Each of us has surprises hidden in there.

ELAM: First step, my mom's DNA, which each company traced back to Africa. African Ancestry told me I have some of the same DNA as the Jola people in Guinea-Bissau today. On my dad's side, the results were in sync but unexpected.

MOUNTAIN: What this is showing R-1-B, which is a line of very, very successful European men. The relative there that we know of is John Adams.

ELAM (on camera): John Adams! John Adams.

(voice-over): But Mountain put that into some perspective.

MOUNTAIN: It's the most common line in Western Europe.

ELAM: Oh. But here's my dad. So why are the results so European?

MOUNTAIN: Many African-Americans have at least one paternal line that traces back to Europe because of the relationships between probably -- probably between slave holders and slaves.

ELAM: So while perhaps shocking, history helped me understand the results. But the lack of a family history is why blacks trace their roots.

GINA PAIGE, CO-FOUNDER, AFRICAN ANCESTRY: We're the only group in this country that can't point to a country of origin. The only one. So that's why DNA testing for ancestry has particular importance for us, historically and psychologically. ELAM: Ancestry.com's John Pereira points out there's more to everyone's story than just DNA.

JOHN PEREIRA, ANCESTRY.COM: You really need to look at not just the DNA, whether you get that at Ancestry.com or some other DNA service, but you really need to look at all of family history.

ELAM: Genealogist Anastasia Tyler did reveal some history about my dad's father Roland, his father John, and his father Creed (ph).

ANASTASIA TYLER, GENEALOGIST, ANCESTRY.COM: You have such strong people in your family tree. You look at Creed (ph) and John, who go from not being able to read to owning land. You know, born into slavery and then becoming landowners, always improving themselves. It's quite a legacy that you have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. I saw this earlier, Stephanie. And, I mean, there's so much interesting in there. But for two seconds I thought, Stephanie Elam is white?

ELAM: Yes. I've gotten that a few times from people, Ali. And that's the thing.

There's two things that I need to point out. A, we were just looking at the line that is my mom's mom's mom's mom's mom, all the way back. Right?

VELSHI: Right.

ELAM: And then my dad's dad's dad's dad's dad.

VELSHI: OK.

ELAM: So there's a whole lot of other branches in there. OK?

VELSHI: Right. Sure. OK.

ELAM: So my dad is very much a black man, but what your finding is, because of the history of slave trading, and all of the relationships that went on, that's what you're seeing. And also, what they told me at African Ancestry is about 35 percent to 40 percent that they test, they do find a white paternal ancestor. So it's very common. What you saw in my family tree, very common for a lot of people in America.

VELSHI: But otherwise, were you surprised at anything that you learned?

ELAM: I was surprised. Guinea-Bissau, I totally want to go now and see what it's like there.

VELSHI: Right. Sure.

ELAM: And also, I'm still really interested in finding out which -- on both sides -- which ancestor was the first one to make that journey over the middle passage. And I've got some clues now, but at least I know on my dad's side we're talking at least six generations, at the very least, that my family has been in America. So my joke is, Ali, I am about as American as they come.

VELSHI: You absolutely are. What a great story. Thanks for bringing that to us.

Stephanie Elam, my good friend and colleague.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien, by the way, is taking a look at how the black church is fighting the financial crisis from the pulpit. Check out "Almighty Debt," a "Black in America" special. It's this Thursday night at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

VELSHI: All right. So you're watching an air show by the famous Golden Gate Bridge when a Boeing 747 gets mighty close to that landmark. What happened? It's not what you think.

We're going "Off the Radar." We'll show you the video and I'll explain it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I'm back here with Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back.

VELSHI: Thank you.

We both saw some video of a 747, a United 747 flying over the Golden Gate Bridge. And the way we saw it -- let's show it to the audience -- that looks awfully close.

MYERS: But it's in front. Look at the jet wash that distorts the video right there. OK?

There is jet wash. So this plane, with a long lens, looks like it's right there by the Golden Gate Bridge.

This video is all over the Internet. People are freaking out that this United Continental plane got that close. And, in fact, it was in the air show flight (ph) back. It really wasn't --

VELSHI: OK. This is part of Fleet Week in San Francisco?

MYERS: Exactly.

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: But from that angle, especially with that long lens -- this guy has got a very big camera with a very good lens. Here's what happened.

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: So here's where it was right, right about the marina district. This is the bravo box, which means no boats in there.

He was down here looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. So you can see the Golden Gate Bridge right there. There's Sausalito and all the way over there.

So, what the plane did was, over here, coming in from the Sausalito side -- we're going to spin it around. Go ahead, Dave. Coming in from here.

The plane's below -- the plane is below the top of the girder, all the way up there, because otherwise, with that lens, you wouldn't be able to see it. It wouldn't have touched at all. It would have seemed above.

Then the plane banked hard, came around, came around in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. The plane was never on the Pacific side of the bridge.

VELSHI: Oh, I understand.

MYERS: So it was on this -- one more move. It starts to turn. There's your bravo box, and the plane flew right exactly where it was supposed to.

VELSHI: OK. So it wasn't trick photography. The plane really was relatively close, but it was where it was supposed to be.

MYERS: That's exactly right.

VELSHI: It was made to look like it flew over the Golden Gate Bridge. Let's run that again. Right.

MYERS: And there might even be some audio here too. The guy goes, "Whoa!" There it is.

VELSHI: How interesting. That's remarkable, because it really looks as if the plane is behind it and flying over it.

MYERS: Especially with the -- the picture is even -- if you want to back up -- and you can go on YouTube, you can go on -- it's all over the place. From the long lens -- from the original -- it looks like that plane is over the other side of the mountain.

VELSHI: Right. Right. Right.

MYERS: It looks like it's coming over Sausalito, it looks like it's coming from your woods over there. But it's not that far away. It's just kind of this optical illusion that makes for some good pictures.

VELSHI: But was it deliberate? Was somebody doing that --

MYERS: Absolutely deliberate. VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: Yes, kind of an advertisement for United Continental. They're together now. October 1st was the merger. (INAUDIBLE) you would know. You're the business guy.

So it's all done. It's all done.

VELSHI: I mean, the two airlines will operate differently until they finally don't, but the deal is done.

MYERS: But that same bravo box where the boats couldn't go, the Blue Angels were there, all the other --

VELSHI: But, you know, when the airlines finish everything, the planes are going to look entirely different. They're going to look like Continental planes with the word "United" on them. So that's a lot of effort to go through with what's going to be an old-looking plane. But whatever.

MYERS: And then they've got to take the other ones that say "Ted" --

VELSHI: They don't have those anymore.

MYERS: Oh, OK.

VELSHI: They don't have those anymore.

All right, Chad. We're going to be back in a second because we have got some other news we want to tell you about. It's a typhoon battering the Philippines, taking aim at Hong Kong. If you've ever been to Hong Kong, you know this is serious.

We're going to have details coming up. Chad is going to join me again in "Globe Trekking."

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. It's time now for "Globe Trekking."

The first stop is the Russian Republic of Chechnya. Three suicide bombers attacked the Chechen parliament in the capital of Grozny today, killing at least three people.

The attackers struck with bombs and guns as deputies arrived for work. The victims included two police officers and a civilian.

All of the attackers are dead. Officials say the situation is under control.

Just last year, Moscow declared victory against Chechen separatists who have been fighting for independence since the early 1990s. OK. Over to Paris now. Weeklong anti-government protests have erupted into violence. Wait until you see some of these pictures -- cars on fire.

The protests, combined with strikes, have created chaos across the country. Train commuters have been stranded. Numerous flights at major airports have been canceled. Gas is running out of gas stations as they can't get more delivered.

Protesters are outraged over the government's plan to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62. President Sarkozy has vowed to crack down on protesters and push ahead with the retirement plan. Who knows who is going to win this standoff?

Let's take you to the Philippines now, devastated by a major typhoon. The storm is blamed for at least 11 deaths. It's now headed toward Hong Kong. In its wake, there are lots of problems coming up. This is a big deal. Chad, Hong Kong -- that area of the world gets typhoons. Hong Kong gets tough weather. They're OK with rough weather. There's obviously something more serious about this.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Because we call it a typhoon, we don't put numbers on it. But our computer would put numbers on it as if it were a hurricane. So, it would be a Category 3, major hurricane running over Hong Kong. But it was bigger than that. This was a devastating hurricane/typhoon for the north part of the Philippines.

VELSHI: Is there any mechanical difference between the hurricane and typhoon or we call them different things?

MYERS: It's the same thing.

VELSHI: They spin a different way?

MYERS: No. Same thing.

Earth. Atlantic Ocean over here, they're hurricanes. Part of the Pacific over here, they're hurricanes. Along -- the other side of the Dateline, they're typhoons.

VELSHI: I go it.

MYERS: If they are in the Indian ocean they are cyclones.

VELSHI: I got it. OK.

MYERS: Same thing. Go all the same direction and all that. But this -- watch the eye right there move over. It looked like an Andrew-esque eye. Honestly, it did. There were hurricane hunter -- U.S. hurricane hunter aircrafts in this thing. So, we believe every single piece of data that came out of that thing, the SFMR, the weather radar found a wind sustained gust, 199.

VELSHI: Wow!

MYERS: 199! I've never heard of such a thing. That's a tornado-like wind in the larger area than obviously a tornado as it came over the northern part of Luzon. That right there is where the track was. This right here, this right here and this right here where the people live. Because this number of deaths would have been way bigger than 14. You can't imagine what 199 would do to any town.

VELSHI: Is Hong Kong equipped for a 3?

MYERS: Hong Kong is a very well built -- it's a lot like New York City.

VELSHI: Yes, that's right.

MYERS: But -- and there aren't that many lower-end people that live in Hong Kong. Everybody who live there makes a lot of money. They live in pretty good buildings, but anybody that runs into a Category 3 it's going to be tough.

VELSHI: There's a lot of water around the place. They have subways and things like that. So, it will create some problems. All right, Chad, thanks very much.

Most of us put on our shoes every morning without even thinking about it. What about those who don't have one good pair of shoes to put on? In our "Mission Possible," we're going to see a 14-year-old who found a way to help one step at a time. You're going to want to hear his story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. I've got a great story for you here. Every day, we give you "Mission Possible, somebody who did something to make the world a better place, something you might even be able to do. Here we're talking about a kid who is 10 years old who came upon the fact that some people just don't have shoes. And he decided he was going to do something about it.

I'm going to let him tell you the story. I want to introduce you to Jacob Rice, the founder of Shoe Giver of Tampa, Florida. Jacob, welcome to the show. I want you to tell us our story. There is a gentleman on the right. I'm not going to tell you about him just yet. He's just going to wait there a second.

Jacob, I want you to tell us your story. What happened?

JACOB RICE, SHOE GIVER OF TAMPA: Hi, Ali, thank you for having me. So when I was 10, I wanted to do something to make a difference in my community. And I called the CDC, which is the Corporation to Develop Communities, and when I asked what was the biggest need of children who are economically disadvantaged in East Tampa, I was told shoes. And so that was how I decided that shoes were what I was going to give.

VELSHI: How were you going to do this at 10 years old? How were you going to get anybody's shoes?

RICE: Well, my initial idea was to call big companies, big shoe companies, sneaker companies, and ask them if they would donate shoes to my cause so that I could get these kids brand new shoes.

VELSHI: All right. Now you're the ripe old age of 14?

RICE: Yes, sir.

VELSHI: All right. And then the guy on the right of the screen here is Wayne Elsey, the founder and CEO of Soles for Souls, joining us from Nashville. Wayne is a veteran of the shoe industry, of the footwear industry, and has been in it for a long time. How did you and Jacob get together?

WAYNE ELSEY, FOUNDER/CEO, SOLES FOR SOULS: We connected. I saw what he was doing down there and I said, wow, that's really cool. So I picked up the phone and called him. I said, what can we do together? I want to stand behind you in your cause because he's the future. Fourtenn-year-old guy doing what he's doing is pretty awesome. I said I want to tag my name to him.

VELSHI: You sort of have been doing something similar. Were you in the footwear industry and you over the years when you saw the -- I guess it started with the tsunamis in Asia.

ELSEY: That's right. Absolutely. I was sitting on the couch, as a matter of fact, watching your newscast during the Asian tsunami, and I saw this single shoe float up the day after Christmas and I said, you know what? You're a fool if you don't do something about this.

So, I started collecting shoes. Thought we would collect a couple thousand. Literally a couple hundred thousand pair later, we sent to the tsunami. It's really catapulted since there. Right now, there are still 300 million children around the world that don't have shoes. And we give a pair away every seven seconds all around the world about.

VELSHI: Jacob, what do you guys do together?

RICE: Wayne and I have made it -- Wayne has helped me out with my mission to get every child in need in east Tampa a new pair of shoes. So, Wayne -- when I need new shoes I'll call Wayne, I'll call soles for souls. Soles for souls helps me to get whoever I measure. I measure kids' feet. Whoever I have measured a new pair of shoes. And that's how Wayne and I work together.

VELSHI: This bit about measuring is interesting, Wayne, because when you were involved I guess getting shoes to kids in Katrina, that's one of the things you realized. People were taking whatever they could if they couldn't afford shoes and didn't even have shoes to fit them.

ELSEY: Absolutely. There was one instance a kid wore a size 10. He had on a pair of 6. The other difference in size was a piece of duct tape that his mom and dad did.

This is right here in America. You know, there's a natural disaster happen in people's life right here in America. That's why I have made the motto that we'll change the world one pair at a time. Whether it's one pair or whether it's a huge natural disaster, we're going to make a difference in people's lives with the gift of shoes.

VELSHI: Now Wayne, you've been in the industry a long time. You've almost sort of retired from the industry. Now this is what you do. You get people shoes. Jacob, again, at the ripe old age of 14, I assume you're still in school and have school work to do. How do you manage this and going to school?

RICE: I am in school. And for me, it's really been all about finding a balance to get whatever I need to get done for Shoe Giver of Tampa, my organization, and also maintain good grades in school.

My biggest challenge is not necessarily balancing the time. It's been getting shoes for these kids. So, if I need to set aside a certain amount of time to do Shoe Giver of Tampa and do what it takes, that doesn't matter to me. I do whatever it takes and I take as much time as I need to make sure that I provide excellent service and a brand new pair of shoes for every kid who I reach out to.

VELSHI: Wayne, if Jacob takes over the world, I'll be very happy because he's driven. He's clearly going to solve a lot of problems in the world, but given -- driven for the right reasons. That's as perfect as it gets, right? Someone with his forcefulness and yet with the right cause in mind.

ELSEY: Absolutely: You know what? I hope Jacob can be the next CEO of Soles for Souls. I'm not 14. I'm 45. So, I want him to continue his education, and I want him to continue with his huge heart to make a difference because that's what it's all about.

VELSHI: All right. This is a double for us, a two-fer to get both of you on "Mission Possible." Jacob, what an inspiration to kids your age, kids who are 10 years old who are watching or whose parents are watching. You just took something simple and something small and you did that.

Wayne, thank you for identifying what he did and making it into a reality, scaling it up so you both can make a big difference. We're really proud to know both of you. Thanks very much.

ELSEY: Thank you.

RICE: Thank you, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. If you want to see more about this, go to my blog, CNN.com/ali. We'll point you in the right direction for this.

Hey listen, we're going to take a break. When we come back, our man Ed Henry standing by at the White House. We're going to talk about President Obama, Vice President Biden heading back on the campaign trail. Two weeks to go until the critical midterm elections. We'll talk to our man Ed when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: OK. Time now to go to the White House as we do every day at this time for our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry. Ed, "The Stakeout." Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ali, I like to hear that. You got a lot of umph to that.

VELSHI: No, I do. How are you doing, my friend?

HENRY: I'm doing great! We missed you, man. It's good to have you back.

VELSHI: It's nice to be back. You hear that segment I just did, that nice kid who's 10 years old started getting shoes for everybody?

HENRY: Yes, sorry I missed it. I was in a meeting in the west wing of the White House. I'm sorry, I don't mean to trump your 10- year-old kid. I'm sure it was great.

VELSHI: Yeah, I thought you'd like that. You tend to like when I have kids on who try to change the world.

HENRY: Yes! There was the kid with the green pepper -- like a 75-pound green pepper.

VELSHI: It was a cabbage.

HENRY: That was like the all-time greatest hits.

VELSHI: We'll definitely have to do a back-to-back to show people some of the greatest hits. But let's sort of transfer it to your world then. There are two guys out there -- actually more. Vice president Biden and the president and then a whole bunch of the people trying to change the world because the world as it looks for the Democrats in the midterm election is not all that encouraging.

HENRY: Yes. I mean, it's going to be tough -- for the president. I was with the president and first lady Sunday night in Columbus, Ohio. Campus of Ohio State University. Bottom line is they had 35,000 people out there. They're trying to sort of rally their troops and make sure that the left doesn't stay home. And there was a lot of excitement there for Democrats that night.

And then yet a new poll today says the Democratic governor who is there, Ted Strickland, is down ten points. So, you have to wonder how much impact some of these rallies are going to have. It still remains to be seen.

But the vice president as you mentioned today is out West. He's in Washington state, on to California. And then he's going to sleep in Nevada. And the reason is that basically inside the White House, they're trying to build kind of a firewall out West. You've got these Senate incumbents in Patty Murray, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid, all in trouble. If you look at the math around the rest of the country, Democrats will lose several Senate seats. The question is will are they also going to lose two or three of the West Coast, Western regional Senate seats because if they do it very well could flip to the Republicans. So, you have the vice president out there today. Tomorrow I'm going to be heading out West with the president. He's hitting Washington, California and Nevada as well over the next few days and the first lady is heading that way next week as well. So, this is a full-court press.

VELSHI: Interesting because when you talk about Patty Murray in Washington and you talk about Barbara Boxer in California and certainly Harry Reid, Senate majority leader in Nevada. I mean, these are people who in normal circumstances you wouldn't need the extra help from the president. You may even see those kind of candidates in other states helping out neighbors or helping out a gubernatorial candidate or congressional candidate, and it's reversed.

HENRY: They're pinned down. You make the perfect point because here's the bottom line. The president's time and first lady's time and vice president's time goes without saying, is extremely valuable especially the last two weeks of any campaign, especially one this critical. You'd like to see, if you were a Democrat, your president going out and maybe campaigning in some Republican states, maybe campaigning in some swing states. And as you say, trying to flip some of those seats the Democrats' way.

Instead, what this is all about is playing defense. You've got Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, et cetera, all pinned down in their states in very close races. Some of them, all of them may pull it out in the end. Who knows? But in these final two weeks, you've got all of this manpower and firepower from the White House all deployed there trying to bail them out.

That means there are critical needs in other parts of the country that may not be met. You may not get the president back to Ohio or you may not get him back to Florida or somewhere where there's a critical Senate race because they're pinned down in the West right now.

VELSHI: Let me ask you this. I was in Roanoke, Virginia, yesterday and people were sort of asking. There's a whole bunch of uncertainty out there. We all talk about uncertainty in business. Business is not spending because they're uncertain about what government is doing and maybe there will be a little more certainty after November 2, on November 3 after this election.

Given all the possible scenarios, what greater certainty could there be? Because if the Republicans take the Senate or they take the House and the Senate -- looking less likely that they might take the House -- why would that give us more certainty?

HENRY: It's a good question. On one hand, there will be more certainty because we finally have some sort of result. Either going to be Republicans running the Hill or maybe there'll be a split decision and have the Republicans running the House, Democrats barely hanging on to the Senate, something like that.

Yet, there will still be tons of uncertainty. I mean, look, we haven't talked as much about it in the last couple of weeks but there was the red-hot debate a month ago what's going to happen to the Bush tax cuts? They're still expiring at the end of the year. All of a sudden, if you have a whole new makeup in the House and Senate, they don't get sworn in until the beginning of January. Those tax cuts are expiring at the end of the year. Very likely Congress comes in for a lame-duck session with still Democrats in control regardless of what happens in the election.

I was talking to a very senior Republican who was saying his bet in this lame duck session, they will basically extend all of the Bush tax cuts -- middle class but also for the rich as well -- for one year to just kind of punt it. Nobody knows for sure. That does seem like a somewhat likely scenario. That would bring some certainty to businesses because they would say at least they know the tax rates are going to be for the next year, but who knows what it's going to be after that?

VELSHI: Then start the uncertainty debate all over again.

HENRY: Certainly but a lot of uncertainty yet to come.

VELSHI: Ed, you're right. The tax cuts -- extending the tax cuts will probably be the biggest issue, but there are discussions about what happens with health care. There will be a lot of things to discuss.

Ed, good to see you as always. Our senior White House correspondent at the White House today for "The Stakeout."

Just 14 days, two weeks before the elections. Democrats trying a new tactic in the California governor's race. John King is part of The Best Political Team in television, and it's our privilege to have him here with the latest developments. John?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ali Velshi, seeing Ed Henry there on the North Lawn making me nostalgic for the good old days.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: That's right.

KING: Great conversation there.

You're right. Democrats are trying a lot of things. If you turn on your TV and you're in a state with a big election, a lot of noise on the TV. Jerry Brown, the California Democratic candidate for governor, trying something interesting and somewhat entertaining as he tries to defeat former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. He's running an ad essentially saying she equals Arnold Schwarzenegger. An ad features them using similar lines. Meg Whitman says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Guess what? Arnold has used that before. I've made a payroll. Arnold has used that before. So, it's a way of trying to link Republican Meg Whitman to the unpopular Arnold Schwarzenegger in the campaign's final two weeks. Entertaining. We'll see if it works. Our Shannon Travis, Ali. You know Shannon. He's a political producer. He was out at the start of the Tea Party Express tour yesterday. A brief but fascinating conversation with Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor in which she told Shannon she doesn't think the Republicans and the Tea Party will have a big split, but she warns it's a possibility if the establishment does not listen, if the Republican establishment does not listen to the message of the grassroots Tea Party activists. She said if they don't listen, quote, "the GOP is through." That's a story trending on the Ticker now. If you want to read it and see some of the video of Shannon's interview go to CNNpolitics.com and look at the Ticker for that one.

And on "JOHN KING USA" tonight, Ali, some of the questions you asked Ed Henry - we're going to put to David Axelrod, the president's top political advisor. He'll be joining us tonight. Two weeks before election day. And that's one of the big questions in Washington. Is the president planning to recalibrate to a Washington that without a doubt will have more Republicans? Don't know how many yet, but we know there do will be more Republican influence, and the president has some tough choices to make.

VELSHI: And John, I'm going to ask you this too. Because you and Ed and Wolf, you're all in this. What do you think is likely to change? Will -- if Republicans win either the Senate or the House or both, are they going to go in there and do what the Democrats did in 2008? Say, all right, we got control of it, we've got an agenda, we've got a plan, and we're going to push through including repealing health care if that's what has to happen?

KING: Well, it depends on if they get both chambers number one, and it depends, even if they get both chambers on the size of the majority because we do know a number of Senate Republicans who have been there a while don't think repealing health care is a good idea. They think maybe amending the health care bill but many Repubicans don't want the dramatic repeal that others. The Republicans will have a tug-of-war within the Republican ranks depending how well they do in November. We need to know that answer before we can say.

But essentially there's two schools of thought here. We know more Republicans will come into Washington. Will we have two years of confrontation that essentially leaves this to the 2012 presidential election to settle? Or will the president be willing to move to the center and the Republicans be willing to say on these two or three issues, let's try to make compromises. Let's try to govern. Let's try to make deals and then we'll pick these other two or three to fight about? That is the defining question facing Washington.

You just mentioned one of them, the Bush tax cuts, what to do about taxes? The president said he wants to be serious about the deficit. Well, you can't really do that unless you're willing to look at Social Security and Medicare spending. Is the president prepared to move to the center? Are they willing to come to him. Ali, that's why we have elections. We're about to find out.

VELSHI: All right. Good. John, great to see you as always. Thanks very much, John King, part of The Best Political Team on Television.

Hey, today's "Wordplay" about numbers. Some fuzzy math to go over that might be settled in about 14 days. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: If you ever went to college or held public office, today's edition of "Wordplay" may put a knot in your stomach. Midterms. In school or politics, midterms are in fact, the same thing. They are tests. They're a wake-up calls for students who don't make the grade. Do better in the final or else.

In politics, they're elections. Congressional elections that fall in the middle of a president's term. They're also called off-year elections. They can also be a wake-up call for presidents whose parties fare poorly. But for the candidates, there is no second chance.

College midterms may involve math. Maybe not. Political midterms always involve math. The bottom line is always the same. 218 House seats, 51 Senate seats, and majority rule. That's half, by the way, of each one. And by the way, CNN Equals Politics - there's a little math for you in on years and in off years all year round.

A rape suspect goes berserk in a courtroom in Oregon and it's all caught on tape. We'll show you the video right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Some "Odds & Ends" to finish the show off for you today. Some surveillance video that you just got to see. It's a courtroom outburst in Oregon. The video is of a 55-year-old rape suspect shot last week. The guy bursts into court while his accuser was testifying in his trial. According to the Washington County sheriff's office, he's banging on a table. He overturns the table, like you just see there.

The judge eventually ordered the jury out of the court. The man was ultimately found guilty of sex abuse and tampering with a witness. He's yet to be sentenced.

Hey, we're 14 days away from the election. Two weeks. But we're 20 days away from Conan O'Brien's show on TBS. Everyone is wondering who his first guest will be. The show has actually put it to a vote. Leading the pack, Jack Nicholson followed by Lady Gaga. The full cast of the 2004 live action movie "Fat Albert." That one surprised me. And the pope.

You want to vote on who Conan's first guest should be? Just head to his Web site teamcoco.com.

And that's it for me. Fourteen days until the next election. We're going to continue our coverage of that. Let's turn it over to Brooke Baldwin for NEWSROOM.