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New Numbers on the Hot Races; 'Tis the Season to Find Work; Gaming With Your Body
Aired October 21, 2010 - 12:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. For the next two hours today and every weekday I'll guide you through the maze of information coming your way.
Together, we will learn what's going on at home and around the world. I'll give you access to folks who can best explain what the news means today and the impact that it will have beyond today. I'll showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy and public education.
My mission is to help you figure out how what's going on around you fits into your life. Let's get started right now.
He's what I've got on the "Rundown."
He is not a politician but he has a lot to say about those who are. With the midterms around the corner, comedian Jon Stewart hopes the upcoming rally will help restore sanity in American politics. We'll tell you what he's up to.
Santa is coming to town and bringing loads of jobs for the unemployed. I'm not kidding. Just ahead: see who's hiring and how to turn a seasonal job into a permanent one.
Plus, no controllers here. A new way to connect and have fun with your Xbox by letting your body control the action. Even if you're not into gaming, what I'm going to show you might change your mind.
But let's talk about the election. We're really, really in the homestretch now -- 12 days to go, as you can see by this big number on the wall right now, 12 days until Election Day, although new numbers out now say that around 3 million of you have already voted. Good job to those of you who have.
But nothing has been decided yet. Not even close. The races are tough. Some of them are downright nasty and many of them, as we have just learned, are still too close to call.
Let's get down to what we do best. Our T.J. Holmes checking in with young voters in Florida. We're going to talk to him in a second. He's with the CNN Express.
But, first, my favorite political tag team on television, CNN senior political editor Mark Preston, deputy political director Paul Steinhauser.
Guys, we got fresh new polling that shows, it's CNN/Opinion Research Corporation polling in several states, it shows tight races and it does not show a lot of hope for Democrats right now.
Guys, take it away.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You got it, Ali. You know, when you talk about the Senate, the Republicans need a net gain of 10 seats.
Well, here's one of the states where they may grab one of those 10. Check this out, as you mentioned, CNN/"Time"/Opinion Research Corporation -- in Arkansas, you've got a two-term incumbent there, Democrat Blanche Lincoln. But look at these numbers, trailing by 14 points -- that's what our new poll indicates --
VELSHI: Wow.
STEINHAUSER: -- to John Boozman. He is a congressman from the northeast part of the state and he is the Republican nominee. Those are troubling numbers. Republicans haven't had the seat in a long, long time, Ali.
VELSHI: Let's talk a little bit about Florida. Mark, we've got three candidates running for Senate there. The lead candidate is a Tea Party-backed candidate. The other two trailing behind him.
Tell everybody who isn't following this as closely what the story is about.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, down in Florida, Ali, we've seen the Republican candidate Marco Rubio who really was pushed by the Tea Party so successfully that he was able to push Charlie Crist, the governor, out of the Republican primary.
As you see by those numbers right there, right now, Marco Rubio has a 14-point lead over Charlie Crist and a 26-point lead over Kendrick Meek. Charlie Crist is staging an independent bid, still trying to run for the Senate. And, of course, Kendrick Meek, a congressman, is very far behind.
Now, Florida, a very important state not only in 2010, Ali, but in 2012 -- very important to President Obama's reelection.
VELSHI: Paul, the one thing that caught my attention, looking at Alaska -- I didn't realize relatively how well Murkowski is doing in Alaska. But that still may be a problem for her because all of those people who are polled supporting her may not actually be able to accurately cast a ballot for her.
STEINHAUSER: You are absolutely right. Let's go right to the boards in Alaska. Take a look at this: 37 percent for Murkowski, the incumbent Republican senator. But as you mentioned now, the write-in candidate, because she lost the Republican primary to Joe Miller, he's now the Republican's nominee. Dead even, 37 percent for each of them and the Democrat down a 23 percent, Scott McAdams.
Go to the next board, though, because this is fascinating. Our polling director, Keating Holland, specifically asked these questions because Murkowski is running as a write-in candidate. He asked, are you very confident up there in Alaska that you know the correct write- in voting procedure? Ninety-three percent, Ali, say yes, overwhelmingly. But look, that 6 percent who say they may be confused, those numbers could be crucial in a race that is very, very close.
VELSHI: And just to be clear to our viewers, you can't -- it's not one of those things that if you write in anything that looks like Lisa or anything looks kind of like Murkowski, it's going to be counted. It's very specific, very precise, as to what you have to put on that ballot if you want to vote for Lisa Murkowski.
STEINHAUSER: You don't have to spell her name correctly but you have to get pretty close. The intent has to be there. And if this election goes down into overtime, there's going to be a lot of question on some of those write-in ballots, Ali.
VELSHI: OK, Mark, tough one for you: those stairs, do they go anywhere, the stairs behind you?
PRESTON: I'll tell you what? If you go up to the stairs, take a left and then you look to your right, there's the bathroom.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Guys, excellent to see you as always. Our tag team special, Mark Preston, senior political editor, and Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political director. We will see you guys later on in the show.
Young voters came out in force, by the way. You'll remember this -- Mark and I were talking about it yesterday. They came out in force the 2008 elections. What's the mood this time around? It's different.
T.J. Holmes has been taking the pulse of the nation. He's touring around this week on the CNN Election Express bus. Let's see what he's got. He's in Gainesville, Florida, now.
T.J., in 2008, exciting energy with voters. Is it there? Has it worn off?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Worn out, it ain't there. I guess it's possible, Ali, they could be just lying to me. I've been lied to before.
But to a person, everyone we found on this trip at least, nobody is motivated to go out. Of course, we know there was the transformational figure at the top of ticket last time, Barack Obama. They can see that. That was a tangible vote they could cast and they knew exactly what it was for, it was for history, quite frankly. This time around -- they're not exactly sure what they're voting for. And, Ali, it's tough for them to buy into what the president has been trying to sell which, hey, you voted for me, you voted for the change, but I still need help to implement the change. That is not quite resonating.
VELSHI: Yes.
HOLMES: To be quite honest with you, Ali, out here, you know college kids are busy. They got other stuff going on.
VELSHI: Yes.
HOLMES: They're trying to find jobs. They're trying to work jobs. They're trying to get work done. They're worried about the girlfriend calling them back and things like that.
VELSHI: And it feels different, right? It feels different -- it feels different that the president may be directly or indirectly trying to get you a message about voting for someone else for Congress which you never had as much faith in as you had in the hopes for Barack Obama that cause you to go to the polls and vote for him in 2008?
HOLMES: A totally different pitch the president is trying to make. And he's been trying to make it. And, yes, you see him on college campuses. You see him having rallies. And you see young people excited to be there and see the president.
So, you would think that enthusiasm is there. But you come here, you come to other college campuses we've been to. We talked to the person who was ahead of the College Democrats and the College Republicans and the thing they agreed on was that it's a challenge for them. They have even offered rides -- we will come pick you up and take you to the polls. All you got to do is get in the car and go vote.
And still, some young people are not being tuned in. And, you know, they have a lot the stake here even though they might not realize it. Just this year, this campus where I am, 15 percent tuition hike -- that has everything to do with state coffers going down a little bit because the federal coffers are going down a little bit.
So, everything you watch (ph) affects them. It's just hard to get that message to resonate and to action for the young folks.
VELSHI: When are you getting on the bus? I want to see the inside of the bus again. It's like you don't want to do this because I asked you.
HOLMES: Ali --
VELSHI: Right? That's what it is.
HOLMES: Ali, you and the bus. I promise you -- OK, I promise you, Ali. Next hour, we're going to do something special for you, just for you. I know you miss this bus, OK?
VELSHI: I miss it. I miss it.
HOLMES: I promise, we will give you a little something next hour, OK?
VELSHI: And by the way, after today, where are you going?
HOLMES: After today, the bus and all of its glory, we should give a good look at it. It is going to be heading down just a couple hours down the road to Tampa. It will be the last stop on this particular trip. And, of course, Candy Crowley is going to be doing the senatorial debate on Sunday from the bus.
So, there was a purpose to our trip here. We pick a lot along the way. But, still, more to be done on this trip.
VELSHI: I do miss that bus. I miss you, too, my friend. Good to see you, as always. We'll see you next hour. T.J. Holmes in Gainesville, Florida.
HOLMES: See you soon, buddy. See you soon.
VELSHI: All right.
Listen, a lot of political ads out there. We've been telling you about them. Millions, it's going to be billions spent on them. Some of them are bound to miss the mark. That's the case in one Colorado House race where Republican Cory Gardner launched an attack against his opponent, for her ties to the Obama administration and the financial crisis.
Now, in the ad, he says incumbent Democrat Betsy Markey voted in favor of President Obama's budget. Well, he's partly right, kind of. Someone named Markey did vote for the Obama budget, Ed Markey of Massachusetts. Gardner's campaign has since pulled the ad.
OK. You all know Larry King. You all know Jon Stewart. They both pretty reasoned thoughtful hosts. So, when last night's interview devolved into potty talk, it was a shocker. That's next. And remember, I've warned you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: Tonight, I announce the rally to restore sanity.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Just over a week from now, it's Jon Stewart's big rally. But some folks are still a little confused about his D.C. plan. And by some folks, I mean Larry King. Jon popped by "LKL," "LARRY KING LIVE," last night, to clear things up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Explain this rally.
STEWART: Rally to restore sanity.
KING: Is it a political rally?
STEWART: No. It is, in fact, not a political rally.
KING: So, what are you assuming? There is insanity prevailing and you're the restoring of sanity?
STEWART: Do you watch television?
KING: Yes. What are you presuming?
STEWART: Do you live and breathe, my friend? We are presuming that 75 percent to 85 percent of the country, reasonable people that get along and may not agree on things but they can do things, and the other 15 percent control it, the dialogue and legislation.
KING: Who will be speaking other than you and your pal?
STEWART: So, we should -- you're --
KING: Colbert. You and Colbert are speaking.
STEWART: You're saying we should have -- we should have planned speakers?
KING: Oh, there are no speakers?
STEWART: Oh, Jesus.
KING: The Marine Corps marathon --
STEWART: Yes.
KING: -- this is day after your rally.
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: I'm running.
KING: Oprah ran it once.
STEWART: Did she really run a marathon?
KING: She did.
STEWART: There is nothing that woman can't do. KING: The organizers have arranged for 800 portable toilets, but they won't be delivered to the Mall until after your rally. Has this been solved?
STEWART: We have been in contact with the port-o-potty people.
KING: And this is serious. Hey.
STEWART: Right now, they are -- they say they are efforting
KING: Efforting?
STEWART: -- port-o-potties. We will have toilets. They may not be enclosed.
KING: OK.
STEWART: I guess what I'm saying is --
KING: You just decreased the crowd.
STEWART: -- we will either have toilets or we will have shovels.
KING: OK.
STEWART: It's really up to people to make up their own mind.
KING: But we have a gift for you.
STEWART: I don't -- now, I really don't know what to think.
KING: I wanted to do my bit for the rally attendees.
STEWART: We're very --
KING: This will be shipped to you. Watch.
STEWART: So, this is your response to Oprah?
KING: Open the curtain, please.
STEWART: This is the curtain? Oh, my God!
KING: There it is -- the first potty for the rally.
STEWART: Can I tell you something?
KING: And our executive producer almost used it.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: That is -- please tell me that that is not the capsule that they keep you in.
(LAUGHTER) STEWART: Is that the hyperbaric chamber when you're not working? All right, somebody store King until tomorrow. We got Loni Anderson and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Let's keep -- put King back in the crisper.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Just to clarify, Larry's digs or his hyperbaric chamber, if you will, is much spiffier than the one you saw there.
All right. The holidays, to some people, is just around the corner. And when Santa comes to town, he might be bringing jobs with him. In fact, we know he's bringing jobs with him. Are they just here for the season? Some of them could outlast the holiday hiring season.
Who is taking applications? Coming next in "Your $$$$$."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: What is on your holiday wish list? For a lot of Americans, quite simply, it would be a job. If you're looking for work, businesses plan to hire thousands of workers.
Let's look at a few big companies. Wells Fargo looking for 10,000 new people. H and M, the fashion store, 1,000. Hewlett- Packard adding 5,000 jobs. Listen to this one, Toys "R" Us plans to hire 45,000 people for the holidays.
Christine Romans, my friend and co-host of "YOUR $$$$$" joins me now from New York.
Christine, this is great news. It's not -- doesn't always happen this way, because sometimes, we just think we're not going to have a good holiday shopping season. So, that's -- it's good that there's hiring coming. But always the question is: Do any of these translate into real full-time jobs after this?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, before I get to the sack full of coal I have over here next to me, to put on your stocking, Ali, about the labor market in general, let me talk about those jobs, because about 40 percent of those are probably going to turn into full-time permanent work. That's according to a survey from Career Builder.
So, some of those jobs are going to turn into full-time work. And you know why, Ali? Because people have cut to the bone so much, if you can get your foot in there in the temporary job --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- and things look stable or even improving in sales early in the year, you've got a good chance of staying on there. And these aren't all front-end retail jobs. There's jobs in tech support. There's jobs in accounting and finance and a lot of other jobs there, too.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Those Toys "R" Us jobs, by the way, they are starting these Toys "R" Us expresses, these temporary stores where coming to a neighborhood near you --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- there could be a place for a retail job there.
And, Jessica Dickler, who works for CNNMoney.com, she just posted a story about how some of these places are using Twitter --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- putting out tweets -- UPS jobs is one of them -- putting out tweets where to apply and how to apply via Twitter for some jobs.
VELSHI: Great.
ROMANS: That's an interesting twist.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Hey, here's a question for you --
ROMANS: Yes?
VELSHI: -- because whenever I tell people about the unemployment rate I often get the response, well, if the unemployment rate is 9 percent and change, that means 90 percent of Americans are working. So, how bad can it be?
ROMANS: Yes, that's actually -- I sniffed that out a while ago because it just didn't seem -- it just didn't seem right. And it isn't.
You look at this chart I brought along for you. This is -- this is why -- this is why I hesitate too much to get too optimistic about retail seasonal jobs because we have only 58.5 percent of the working age population who are employed at the moment.
And you can see -- this is over 10 years, this chart that I brought you. You can see how the great recession really devastated the ranks of working Americans in this country -- 58.5 percent, Ali, is a really, really low number.
So, if you are not able to get one of those retail jobs, if you are not -- if you've been doing everything right --
VELSHI: Yes?
ROMANS: -- and you haven't -- haven't been able to get a job, it might not be your fault. It's just this --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Is there a way -- is there a way we can see that graphic again? Because I want to -- I want to ask you something about it, about this -- 58.5 percent of the working age population working at the moment. But let's go back -- go back to 2006, 2007, when the unemployment rate in the country was half of what it is now. It was 5 percent. And at that point, we had under 64 percent of the population working.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: So, when you say 58.5 percent of the working age population, does that mean 58 percent of everybody whose available to work or are some of those people retraining or are they in prison? Or -- what is it calculating?
ROMANS: Yes. Yes, they are in prison. They are stay-at-home moms. They are people who presumably maybe are so rich they don't have to work, although I don't know anybody like that.
But, you know, there are people who are not in the labor market.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: The labor market, 9.6 percent of the active labor market is unemployed.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: But this is a much broader picture.
VELSHI: Got it.
ROMANS: Prison is about 1.2 million I think in prison. It's in jails. I'm not sure if the military is included in this or not.
VELSHI: OK.
ROMANS: I think it might be this -- I'm not sure if the military is included in this. It's people who are completely just sidelined --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- who have never had a problem and will never be have a job. It's people who are disabled. It's a part of the population -- it's everyone who's not working. The market is ready and willing and able to --
VELSHI: Right. OK. So, it's a good -- it's an important and good distinction because as we start to, hopefully, see jobs come back in this economy, we're going to want to know what this affects and what number it shifts. So, I appreciate you're doing that extra digging. This is --
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: -- this is what you love to do. You like to get a little further than headlines and we appreciate that.
Christine Romans, you can watch us, by the way, Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on "YOUR $$$$$." Christine is also the author of a brand-new book called "Smart is the New Rich." It is a great book because smart is the new rich. It's available now on bookshelves.
Let me bring you up to speed with some of the stories that we're following right now on CNN.
An appeals court has granted the Obama administration's request to reinstate "don't ask, don't tell" for now. Now, the ban on openly gay service members was lifted briefly after a lower court judge ruled it unconstitutional. The government insisted that such a sudden change would cause big problems for the military.
There's a new sheriff in town in one of Mexico's more violent areas. She's a 20-year-old criminology student who says she's just tired of people being afraid. She was, by the way, the only one unafraid to take the police chief job. Law enforcement officers there are frequently targeted by drug gangs.
And some disastrous deja vu for Toyota. The car marker just recalled 740,000 vehicles sold here in the United States. The problem? Potentially unsafe brakes. The cars affected include some Avalons, Highlanders and several Lexus models. Since the second half of the year, Toyota has had to recall more than 8 million cars for several different problems.
Now, when you have a health question that you don't want anyone to know about, who do you ask? Ever search online trying to get an answer from Dr. Google. Well, you're not the only one. We're going to look at the biggest health searches out there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We've all done it. You got a health question -- instead of picking up a phone to call a doctor, you may not even know you need a doctor for this, so you go to Google or something like that.
There's a new report out this week showing that many people aren't even waiting to get home to do these health care searches on their computers. They're doing them from their phones and it turns out, more often than not, they're talking about sex. Elizabeth Cohen is our senior medical correspondent with the deal on this one.
This is logical, though. This makes sense, right? If you got a question about something to do with your health and sex, you may not want to be asking everybody before you do a little research on your own.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's true. But what's interesting is that people are more likely to do sexual health searches on their phone than on their computer.
VELSHI: Interesting.
COHEN: It is interesting. And a couple of theories about that that I'll get into a minute.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: But, first, let's take look at the number of people who are doing health searches on their cell phones.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: There's a big report came out this week from the Pew Internet folks, the first time they've done this, and it's a lot of people.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: When you look at it, 17 percent of phone users have done a health search on their cell phone. And when you look at people ages 18 to 29, 29 percent have done it, have done a health search which leads me to explain why so many sex searches.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: Those are the people who are getting pregnant. Those are the people who have lots of partners. It does make sense.
VELSHI: All right. What are they searching for?
COHEN: I got a 54321 list for you.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: OK. So, let's take a look.
All right. The fifth most common search term according to Yahoo! on mobile phones is STD, sexually transmitted diseases. The fourth one is breast cancer. The third one is gout. Nobody can explain to me why gout is a popular thing to search for on your cell phone. And the second one is herpes. And the first one is pregnancy.
VELSHI: Do we know if people are getting -- when you search on your cell phones -- something I don't do, so I don't really know how it works out.
COHEN: I'll teach you later.
VELSHI: Right. OK. Fair enough. Are people satisfied with how it works?
(CROSSTALK)
COHEN: Yes, it was interesting. I was talking to the folks at Google, and they said, even on the computer, they know that sometimes people are not happy with their searches, and the way they know is that people immediately do another search, like they do a search --
VELSHI: I see. OK. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
COHEN: And they say, oh, that didn't work out. So, we were thinking maybe people are getting junk. And so, we thought, well, let's take five popular topics.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: And we'll tell you the best Web sites. You don't even need to go to Google.
VELSHI: Right. OK. Good.
COHEN: So pregnancy, that was number one on that list. Take a look. Here is a wonderful site, Dr. Spook has a quiz, how to know if you're pregnant?
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: So, you can work your way through stuff. OK.
COHEN: There you go. So, you've ever wondered, Ali, if you're pregnant --
VELSHI: All right. And you know I told you, sometimes the way I eat, I think I am.
COHEN: Here's another good pregnancy one. This is a due date calculator. You just put in your information and it tells you when the baby is due to pop out.
And here is a third one from "Parenting" magazine. You go week by week and it tells you what stage your baby is at.
VELSHI: No kidding.
COHEN: So the zygote stage right there.
VELSHI: So, it's just good for conversation because whenever -- when you're working with people who are pregnant, I never know sort of between week, you know, whatever they tell me.
COHEN: Yes.
VELSHI: And what you ask in the next week. So, I get on here and say, oh, listen, is this happening?
COHEN: Yes, you can say, Susie, you're at this week, maybe your baby is getting a liver today.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: Right. VELSHI: Very interesting.
COHEN: Cocktail party conversation.
VELSHI: Very good. All right. Good to see you, Elizabeth. Thanks very much.
COHEN: Good to see you.
VELSHI: Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
We, by the way, have a quiz for you. In the last 10 years, do you think favorable views of Islam went up or went down? Do we think of it more favorably now than we do 10 years ago after 9/11? Think about that for a second, I'll give you the answer when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: An analyst with National Public Radio has been fired after saying on Fox News that he gets nervous when he says people with Muslim garb on planes. Juan Williams made the comments Monday on the O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly was seeking comment from Williams on O'Reilly's own controversial remarks that he made on "The View" about Muslims.
You'll remember that prompted a couple of the hosts from "The View" to walk off the show. So Juan Williams said, and I'm quoting from him, "Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot, you know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane I've got to tell you, I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims.
I get worried. I get nervous. NPR fired him citing those remarks. And before the break we asked you this question, do you think that we have more favorable views of Islam than we did ten years ago? Let's look at the answer - the favorable view of Islam has actually gone down. I want to talk a little bit about what this means and what the questions were and how we're measuring this.
Allen Cooperman is the Associate Director of Research at Pew Research Center's forum on religion and public life, he joins me from D.C. Alan, thank you for being with us. I want to put the information up on the screen and let people know about how people view Islam. What does this mean? What was the question that was asked?
ALAN COOPERMAN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, PEW RESEARCH CENTER : The question is asked, do you have a generally favorable view of Islam or generally unfavorable view of Islam? --
VELSHI: And the way it breaks, go ahead
COOPERMAN: It's dropped about ten percentage points from the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Back then about three in ten Americans had generally unfavorable view of Islam and about four in ten had a generally favorable view. And today it's about the reverse, it's about four in ten who have a generally unfavorable view. And three in ten who have a generally favorable view.
VELSHI: Let's go back to that graphic I was just showing our audience and show you how it largely breaks down.
In the favorable column it tends to be younger Americans, 18 to 29, college graduates seem to fall into that category and they tend to identify as Democrats.
If you were to characterize the concentration on the unfavorable side it tends to be older Americans, lower educated, and Republican.
What does that tell us?
COOPERMAN: Well, it's kind of a straight line correlation, Ali. The older you are and the less educated you are, the more unfavorable your attitudes toward Islam tend to be. So, people who are younger, people who have higher education, tend to be more favorable in their views of Islam. Republicans tend to be, have less favorable views of Islam than Democrats.
VELSHI: Let's take a look at this chart and I need you to explain this to us. There are two blue lines on this chart, the darker blue line, the question is do you believe Islam encourages violence more than others. Let's just look at that for a second and look at that trend. What does that tell us? We were -- you go ahead and explain it.
COOPERMAN: Sure, Ali. Back in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the first numbers you're seeing there at the left side of the chart, 51 and that other number is actually lower -
VELSHI: Forty-two.
COOPERMAN: Actually, it should be lower than that. But anyway, it was more than 2 to 1 back then - Americans felt that Islam does not encourage violence more than other religions do. Remember that in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, not only the president at that time but the vice president and lots of other senior officials came out and said, we're not in war with Islam. Islam is a religion of peace, it's been hijacked, et cetera.
And public opinion showed that, and we saw a dramatic shift from pre 9/11 to post 9/11 and that most traumatic moves were among --
VELSHI: just to interrupt you for a second so that our viewers can follow what we're saying. Basically, what you're looking at on this chart, the thing that's relevant, is that the spread on the left side, right after 9/11 between people who - on the higher part of that think that Islam is not a religion that promotes violence more than others versus the lower side, which is people who do, that spread has narrowed now.
COOPERMAN: Yes, and --
VELSHI: There's less space between the people who think that Islam promotes violence more than other religions and those who don't.
COOPERMAN: -- that's right, and that number that's 42 is incorrect on your slide. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that should be 25. So, it's jumped from 25 percent who felt that Islam encourages violence back then, 25 percent said Islam encourages violence more than other religions do. And 51 percent said no, Islam does not. And now and since then, since 9/11 that has tightened up a great deal.
VELSHI: Right, so the 25 percent who do, has moved up to 35 percent and the 51 percent who didn't think Islam promoted violence more than other religions has dropped to 42 percent. What can we --
COOPERMAN: That's right
VELSHI: You identified there that it was a very clear message, including right from the top, right from the president down that Islam -- we're not fighting Islam, we're fighting terrorists, we're fighting killers, we're fighting murders, we're fighting al Qaeda.
Should we be doing something differently. Is this a societalship? Is this the administration? What's the issue?
COOPERMAN: Well, one thing we can see in the public opinion is that the big, the huge dramatic shift that took place in public opinion before 9/11 and after 9/11 on this question is that particularly conservative Republicans moved by almost 30 percentage points in their views on this question pre- 9/11 to post- 9/11.
So clearly what the president and vice president and attorney general and others were saying seems to have really shifted public opinion at that time.
Now since then, as we see, public opinion has bounced around on this question. At times it's been higher than it is now, at times it's been lower, but by and large it has tightened. And now you have slightly more people who say Islam does not encourage violence more than other religions do, but it's not nearly as big a spread as it was immediately after 9/11.
VELSHI: And the trend is a little worrisome at the moment because at some point those two lines are going to maybe converge and/or cross.
Alan, thank you for your clear explanation and thank you for clarifying the issue on our graphics. I was having trouble understanding that myself. Alan Cooperman is the Associate Director of Research, he is with the Pew Research Centers forum on religion and public life, joining me from D.C.
Check out that full research study, by the way. The Pew Research Studies are always fascinating. Go to my blog: cnn.com/Ali will link you to it. OK, it has come to this: Lady Gaga postponing concerts in Paris all because of these violent and I mean violent street protests triggered by plans to raise the retirement age by two years. We're going to take you there, we're going to show you some fascinating pictures and tell you what's going on when we come back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Time for "Globe Trekking," our destination now is France, a nation in turmoil. Look at these pictures, let's listen in for a second - violent street protests sweeping across the country. They've done this for days in the wake, burning cars, damaged shops.
Look at all those people, canceled flights, trains, gas stations out of gas, the trucks can't fill up. The outrage has been triggered by plans by the government to raise the retirement age by two years from 60 to 62.
And for Lady Gaga fans in France, a crushing blow, due to the chaos, she has postponed concerts for tomorrow and Saturday in Paris.
Let's go back to Jim Bittermann in Paris about this, Jim obviously we are covering this, the French are very, very involved in this. They've got to know that this is very -- this is causing a problem for France. So obviously they are very dug in about not raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. It seems like a very strange conversation to Americans, it's not strange to French at all.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, especially when you hear Lady Gaga is not coming. But yes, in fact, it is I mean, the pension reform act really has become kind of secondary in this whole debate.
And the proof of that came just a few minutes ago here, Ali. The union council that is coordinating the union's activities and the various days of protest that we've seen, and the kind of things you just talked about, basically says they are going to have two new days of protest.
They've scheduled two new days of protest, one next Thursday and one on November 6th. But those days are actually going to be after the government votes - gets through both houses of parliament, the pension reform act. So it's going to be after the pension reform act becomes law. In a sense, they are conceding that they are not going to win this battle about pension reform.
But they are not conceding the war. Basically what they said in their news comments is that they believe their movement has taken root in French society and among citizens and among workers who feel that there's a certain amount of injustice in French society and injustice in the Sarkozy reform.
So this is becoming a much broader movement than it's been. Now whether or not they'll be successful in mobilizing people is another story, but for the moment, it almost appears they are conceding on the issue of pension reform.
VELSHI: Wow, Jim, this is a - France is a big economy, one of biggest in the world. It is not grouped in with Portugal and Greece and Ireland and Italy as countries with imminent problems. But a lot of European countries face these issues where they've got to raise the retirement age, they've got budget deficits.
This shifts the entire discussion because France is so central to these reforms that the world needs to see Europe implementing. Does this mean a change in direction for France? I mean, could this spill over into elections?
BITTERMANN: Well, it certainly could spill over to elections in 2012, but one of things that we have heard very definitely from the French Finance Minister, Christine LaGuard is that France has got to get its deficit spending down. Right now it's about 7.7 percent of GDP. She wants it down next year by down to 6 percent. And they are going to have to cut the budget to do that, and that means economic reform.
VELSHI: Jim, good to talk to you. We'll stay on top of this as you will.
Jim Bitterman, joining us, he's our senior international correspondent joining us from Paris, remarkable pictures and stories coming out of there.
Hey, I want to show you this graphic that I've got on the wall. A couple of weeks ago we talked about the history of video gaming systems. Right from the beginning - everything from Pong to Nintendo to Playstation. Now Xbox is changing the game, they are going controller-less. We've got a live demo in the studio right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK, a few weeks ago we were telling you -- we love talking about video games here, not because we're crazy gamers. I'm actually not. I couldn't play a video game sort of since 1980. But what is neat is the technology that is used in video games and how it can be applied to other things, not just gaming.
So we want to talk to you about the new device that you can get for the Xbox 360. It's controllerless and I'm watching this guy next to me, Ryan (ph), who is -- I mean, he's waving his hands around and he's doing things.
Ryan, you are like the creator of incubation at Microsoft Xbox. What's your title?
RYAN: I'm actually on the Xbox marketing team. Alex, who you're going to talk to in a minute is the creator. He's the smart guy.
All right, we're going to talk to him in a second. You're going to show us how this works. This is the craziest --
(CROSSTALK)
Well, can I do that?
RYAN: You can, so you can see.
VELSHI: All right.
RYAN: I'm standing here. It will recognize you. It randomly picks a person.
VELSHI: I'm the attractive woman on the right.
RYAN: You're the one on the right.
So you can see if we wave our hands it's just tracking our full body. Now we're playing, so if you lean left and right -- jump, jump, jump! We're playing the game.
VELSHI: And we're jumping up over that. Whoa!
RYAN: Lean right, lean right. Jump!
The more we work together, the better it does.
VELSHI: Now were we meaning -- were we supposed to hit those things?
RYAN: It's loose. We can hit whatever we want. Let's hit this rock here and then jump at the top. Beautiful. And then jump again.
VELSHI: All right.
Wow!
RYAN: You can see us tracking our full bodies.
VELSHI: If we do nothing, what happens?
RYAN: We run into stuff.
VELSHI: Oh, I see and then we'll crash and then that'll end --
RYAN: You stop controlling the game if you stop moving.
VELSHI: OK, what's involved in this? There's a little thing attached to the Xbox?
RYAN: Yes, there's a sensor up there that's tracking you in 3D. It's got a --
VELSHI: Now, we didn't calibrate any of this.
RYAN: We didn't. You just jumped in.
VELSHI: So I just walked in here -- OK, so that's what happens when you don't do it, you just start hitting rocks.
RYAN: You hit the rock.
VELSHI: Wow, that's incredible. Let me bring in the incubator guy.
RYAN: Beautiful.
VELSHI: What's his -- ?
RYAN: Alex.
VELSHI: But what's his -- ?
RYAN: Alex Kipman is the director of incubation for Xbox.
VELSHI: I love that title. I want to be the director of incubation.
RYAN: Me too.
VELSHI: Alex, there he is.
RYAN: Hi, Alex.
VELSHI: He's in our screen. Alex, you can talk while I get used to this thing. You created this. You incubated it. Where did you come up with this?
ALEX KIPMAN, DIRECTOR OF INCUBATION, XBOX: Well, while everybody else is spending their time putting more gadgets and more gizmos in your hand, our idea with a to use technology with kinect to remove the barriers and really put you in the middle of the action. We cue into the controller allowing for the first time for everyone to be part of the fun.
VELSHI: Tell me, Alex -- tell me, Alex, what the technology is that's doing this, this technology that's tracking me. Obviously we've got sensors, we all know that kind of thing exists. But what's special about this?
KIPMAN: So the technology is a set of sensors that you can think of as eyeballs and ears. They are staring at what's going on in the room and they're listening to what's going on in the room.
All of this sensory information goes to the equivalent of the kinect brain. What the kinect brain is is a sophisticated set of algorithms from machine learning to computer vision to multichannel echo cancelation. What these things do is they really allow us to make science fiction into science fact.
What the system is able to do is it's able to identify you. As soon as you walked in front of it, it knew who you were. It knew how to differentiate you from, say, your sister. It tracks your full body motion as you're going down the river, full body as you were going down.
And then ultimately, you can also interact with it with your voice. What better way than to sit back and enjoy your entertainment cause this is about a lot more than just gaming, and to say something like, "Xbox, suggest me a movie."
VELSHI: This is like "Star Trek" when it says -- (CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: -- when you tell the machine or the computer, cup of tea.
KIPMAN: So that part is not working yet, but across all of our gaming and entertainment, absolutely. The thing that we say is, if you can see it, you can say it.
VELSHI: That is incredible.
KIPMAN: If you're watching a live sporting event, you can say Xbox pause.
VELSHI: That's incredible. I'm listening to everything you're saying with fascination and then I'm watching what Ryan is doing with fascination and then I'm reminded that we actually have to do some other news in this show. So I have to say good-bye to you, cause I could end up talking to you guys all day and playing with this thing. So just stick around for a while. Don't go anywhere, cause I want to be able to play in the middle of commercial breaks and things like that.
KIPMAN: Absolutely, thank you so much for having us on your show. I'm so excited.
VELSHI: Alex, thank you. Thanks for showing us how this works and thanks for having a great brain that invents these things, because left to me, we'd still be on an Atari thingy.
Ryan, great to see. Alex, great to see you.
To get all the links and information you could ever imagine on the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360, head to my blog, CNN.com/Ali. The technology here is really fascinating.
Hey, listen, let's go to politics for a second. Remember that witch hovering over Christine O'Donnell? It refuses to fade quietly into the dark. The Republican Senate nominee from Delaware is talking about it again. You're CNN Political update coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: There are just 12 days left until election day, so we want to get you updated on all the developing stories from the campaign trail. CNN's Wolf Blitzer, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," joining us now from Washington.
Hello, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Ali, thanks very much. It's always a political news story here, especially as we get closer and closer to the elections. Go to CNNPolitics.com a lot of information.
Surprisingly, Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Delaware, is now acknowledging it was a mistake for her to issue that controversial ad in which she said, I am not a witch. She's saying, I haven't publically stated this before, I don't know if I will get in trouble for saying that, but our intention was to kill it and that's not what happened.
At the debate last week when I was in Delaware, I asked her, you know, if you wanted to put it away, why would you begin with that commercial with the words, I am not a witch? That would give it life. And now she's acknowledging it was a mistake, a blunder to do that ad.
Another ad that's being released out in Nevada right now, a neck- and-neck race between Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate trying to defeat Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, a new ad that the Services Employees International Union put out saying that Sharron Angle would be bad for women.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AD NARRATOR: Sharron Angle's dangerous ideas will make her life worse at every stage. If she was raped and got pregnant, Angle would force her to have the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: You get the point. Harry Reid getting some help from labor unions out in Nevada right now. She's going after Harry Reid and Republicans are going after Harry Reid for being out of touch and they keep pointing to the fact that he has a condo at the Ritz-Carlton here in Washington.
Finally, another sensitive issue that's out there right now involves whether or not the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy should be lifted in the U.S. military. The Obama administration, even though it wants to do away with the policy, has filed an order through the Justice Department asking that it be retained at least for now until Congress acts.
This morning, Dan Choi, a West Point grad, an Iraq war veteran, he was on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" and he was furious. He was really angry at the Obama administration, specifically Valerie Jarrett, the senior advisor to the president who defended the administration's stance.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. DAN CHOI, DISCHARGED UNDER "DADT": I have a message for Valerie Jarrett and all those people that are -- those politicians in the White House, you've lost my trust. You have lost my trust and I am not going to vote for Barack Obama after what he did yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Valerie Jarrett, by the way, is going to be joining us in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. She'll get a chance to respond to Dan Choi. Lots happening here at CNNPolitics.com.
VELSHI: Wolf, good to see you, as always, thanks very much.
Wolf Blitzer, part of "The Best Political Team on Television."
Coming up after the break, we've got the story behind the video of 3,000 rockets blasting off at the same time. We'll tell you what that's all about on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: I've got some incredible video to show you in today's "Odds & Ends."
This SUV ended up on top of a car at an apartment complex in Miami. Check that out. Investigators say it was actually the white car that caused the crash, believe it or not. The driver hit the accelerator instead of the brake and the force of the impact lifted the SUV off the ground. I've never seen that. This white car snuck in underneath that SUV. No one was hurt, but it made for great video obviously.
Plus, this next clip is creepy and a little bit scary. The chimp that is on the loose in -- was on the loose in Kansas City may spend the rest of her life at the city's zoo. The police car dash cam video caught 21-year-old Sue pushing a trash can across the road and then jumping on top of the car. You can see the glass in the window break when she jumped on the windshield. City officials hope to keep Sue from being returned to her owner and that's why they want to put her in the zoo.
This last clip is just plain cool. For the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts, some kids set off more than 3,000 rockets at once. Take a look.
(VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: It's kind of cool. Thirty-two hundred rockets were set up, only 31,030 went off, but it still blew the old record of 965 rockets out of the water.
