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Running Away from President Obama?; Former Girlfriend of Justice Clarence Thomas Speaks Out; Severe Weather Grounds Hundreds of Flights at O'Hare Airport; What's in Ozzy Osborne's DNA?; The Pulse of the Midwestern Voters; Countdown to Election Day; NBA Season Tips Off Tonight

Aired October 26, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out west, I'm Kyra Phillips.

New video just in from St. Louis. Much of the Midwest could be hammered by a historic wind storm. Thunderstorms already blamed for damage. We're going to look at the threat and the possibility of tornadoes.

Also, new allegations about Justice Clarence Thomas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: You told "The Washington Post" that Justice Thomas was obsessed by porn. Elaborate on that.

LILLIAN MCEWEN, JUSTICE THOMAS' FMR. GIRLFRIEND: I suppose I would call it a fetish or a hobby. It was on that kind of a level. It was something that was very important to him. Something that he talked about.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: A former girlfriend breaks her 19-year silence. Hear for yourself what she has to say.

And maybe he saw it coming. The great (INAUDIBLE). Paul the octopus has died. Who will now correctly predict the winners and -- losers, rather, of the World Cup?

Well, one week from today, Americans go to the polls in the midterm elections. The clock is ticking and the stakes are rising. And our first stop is Tampa where nominees for the Florida governor race bickered and bantered in a showdown seen here on CNN.

The main theme and certainly the most contentious issue, who should the voters trust?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX SINK (D), FLORIDA GOV. CANDIDATE: Rick Scott constantly says I followed the rules. Well, he certainly was not following the rules when he led a company that was convicted of 14 felonies because they were engaged in Medicare fraud. He's just somebody that we can't trust because he doesn't know how to follow the rules.

RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA GOV. CANDIDATE: Look. You want to talk about fraud. Let's talk about your job at Nation's Bank. Your tellers were paid kickbacks -- your tellers in your bank were paid kickbacks for directing elderly consumers from safe -- don't smile about it. You don't care about seniors? Is that the deal?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, another ugly moment of the debate came here when Alex Sink was shown a text message during a break in the televised debate. That's in violation of the rules by the way and Rick Scott notified a CNN official who confiscated the cell phone.

After the debate, the Sink campaign announced that the adviser who sent the message has been removed from the campaign.

Also debating last night, two candidates seeking the U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky. Like many races around the country President Obama and his policies loomed large.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK CONWAY (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: I would like to fix the health care bill. It's not perfect bill. I'm on record saying I would have voted for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mend it, not end it?

CONWAY: Right. He wants to -- he wants to repeal it. And I can tell you this, I'm not for a $2,000 deductible in Medicare which seems to be his plan for Medicare.

RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: One of the great ironies of this whole debate over deductibles is that when I spoke of deductibles I spoke of ways to try to fix the problem in the future. Not on current retirees and not on near current retirees. But the interesting irony is, under Obamacare, which Jack supports, deductibles are already going up.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And one of the ugliest flashes of anger happened just before the debate. It's a worker for the liberal group Moveon.org getting roughed up outside the forum. She's getting stumped on by a man wearing a "Rand Paul for Senate" t-shirt.

Lexington Police are investigating and they say that all the people who roughed up that woman could face charges now.

President Obama is not on the campaign trail today but some Democrats are still running away from him. Let's take a closer look at the dynamics of an unpopular president with senior White House correspondent Ed Henry.

So Ed, what's going on here? ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, you had just in the last day or so some conservative Democrats trying to distance themselves a little bit more from the President Obama.

Congressman Gene Taylor in Mississippi saying to his constituents that he voted for John McCain in 2008, not President Obama. Partly and clearly because of the fact that there are a lot of these blue dog conservative Democrats in the House who are worried that they're an endangered species. They're going to lose because President Obama, in part, is unpopular in their states.

Secondly, you've got Joe Manchin, the Democratic governor of West Virginia, now running for Senate. He's hedging on whether or not he'll even support President Obama for reelection in 2012. Interesting, though, that as he's doing that, Manchin has been rising in the polls in West Virginia.

So some of these conservative Democrats see an opportunity here to not just distance themselves but actually move up in the polls, maybe win the races, and frankly, there are people at the White House who don't really care about the maneuvering because in the end, they want these Democrats to be reelected.

What they have to do back home to do that is up to them -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So is that why we keep seeing Bill Clinton out there stumping for votes and support?

HENRY: Oh, yes. Big time. That's a huge reason why Bill Clinton has been so active. He's apparently done more than 100 campaign events already in the midterms. That's right around what Vice President Joe Biden has done.

So it gives you an idea of how aggressive Bill Clinton has been out there, he's been going to states like West Virginia, where President Obama, you don't see him out on the trail in states like that. He's not popular there.

Bill Clinton is perfect for the party to send there, so there's a lot of people in this building who see that as a good one-two punch. President Obama out on that west coast swing that I was with him just a few days ago and then you've got Bill Clinton going to some of the southern states and others where he's more popular -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Ed Henry at the White House. Ed, thanks so much.

HENRY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Some pretty nasty storms in the Midwest right now. Rob Marciano keeping a close eye on things in the Severe Weather Center.

Rob, you must be working that last-minute information there.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I'll tell you, Kyra --

PHILLIPS: Here he comes straight off the press. Right off the press.

MARCIANO: It has been a busy morning. Good morning again. And --

PHILLIPS: Are you sweating?

MARCIANO: You know I may very well be, but we try to cover that up.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: Kyra, back over to you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks.

MARCIANO: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Hate and a horrific beating brought a skin head and a gay man together when they were very young. Years later, hope reunited them. The former hater and hated now working together to spread a message of tolerance and no one knows that message better than they do. We're talking to them live in a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. It's time for today's talker. It's a story about two men. Hate, hope, forgiveness, redemption. Also, irony and coincidence. You got all that? Well, let's start in 1989.

Check out Tim Zaal. He is the guy in the white t-shirt that you're going to see -- there you go. Right there. He and a couple of other white supremacists are sent to jail for attacking an Iranian couple in Los Angeles.

No great shock for Zaal. He'd spent a big chunk of his young life in California hate groups. Neo-Nazi punk types, beating people up. Including people that he assumed were gay.

All right. Now meet Matthew Boger. His mom actually kicked him out of the house when he was just about 13 years old because he was gay.

You're going to see Matthew in just a second. He lived on the mean streets of Los Angeles, eating out of trash cans and he was easy prey for skinhead types who hated gays.

Well, one night when he was just 14 years old, more than a dozen of them chased, beat and kicked him until they thought he was dead. One of those thugs -- let's get back to Tim Zaal. But that was the old and regretful Tim Zaal.

Years and life transformation later, he would meet up with the man that he thought he had killed. Not on the dark streets of Los Angeles but of all places the Museum of Tolerance in Sacramento.

And that's why Matthew and Tim's story is today's talker. These two men are a museum of tolerance. And they're with me this morning to talk about their unlikely reunion and their even more unlikely friendship. Tim is joining us out of Los Angeles. Matthew is there in Sacramento.

And, Tim, I want to start with you. Why were you so violent and hateful growing up?

TIM ZAAL, FORMER SKINHEAD: You know, I was just an angry kid. I always felt like I didn't fit in and the neighborhood where I lived. When I was a younger kid, my brother was shot by an African-American man. Of course, he did survive.

But, you know, I went through most of my young life just angry. I just was angry all the time. I didn't fit in. And the racial aspect of it gave me an outlet. You know? It gave me an excuse to go around kicking people around. It made me feel good about me. It made me feel like I was in control.

PHILLIPS: Now why did you hate gays?

ZAAL: Back then, it wasn't necessarily a case of hating any specific group in particular. It was just hate. You know? I hated everybody. And looking back, you know, I also think I hated myself to a degree back in those days.

Why else would I be, you know, trying to -- I don't know, relieve myself of pressures of being a kid by beating the living daylights out of somebody.

PHILLIPS: All right. So now we kind of know where your mind-set was.

Matthew, when you were 13, 14, when you decided to come out to your parents, why did you do that?

MATTHEW BOGER, GAY ACTIVIST, PUBLIC SPEAKER: Well, actually, I was, you know -- I was being bullied in school to the point where I actually had a fear of going to school. So, I wasn't actually going to school anymore, and I was actually seeking -- my parents were divorced, so I was actually seeking and reaching out to my mom for help with what was going on in school.

And in that brief conversation, it's when I told her that I was gay. So it wasn't like I woke up day and I was like, hey, this is a great day to come to my parents. It was needing that help and seeking that guidance from my mom at that time, at 13, which is why I told her.

PHILLIPS: And you didn't get that help. You ended up living on the streets. And about a year later, obviously, things were not going well for you. Do you remember that night that Tim and the other guys came after you?

BOGER: I remember that night. It's one of the things I remember as if it was last weekend. I remember it clearly. I remember all 14 of them. I remember every punch, every kick. They had razor blades glued to the front of their boots, so I remember every slice. It's not something that has ever gone away. And it's why I was able to so readily recognize Tim. It was more his eyes that I recognized than it was Tim.

PHILLIPS: Tim, do you remember that night?

ZAAL: Absolutely. For me, it was something that stuck in the back of my mind for most of my life. And it was one of those things that I just didn't talk about, even to the other people who were involved. We never talked about it again, it was like one of those things. You just push it down and you kind of forget about it. I went through most of my life thinking I've killed this person.

PHILLIPS: So, what happened, Tim? You obviously changed. You changed your whole life. Was there a moment that this happened? What caused the revelation?

ZAAL: You know, it was a combination of things. It was being disgruntled with the white racialist movement. It was fatherhood. It was spiritual aspects in my life. And the violence and everything just plainly stopped working. It stopped making me feel good about myself.

PHILLIPS: All right. Now I want to get --

ZAAL: And when something stops helping, you just give it up.

PHILLIPS: Understood. I want to get to that moment when you guys came together at the Museum of Tolerance. But let me ask you both how you first got there. Matthew, how did you get connected to the Museum of Tolerance?

BOGER: I had a career before, and to make this sort of brief, there was multiple stories in the media, starting with Matthew Shepard. There were kids that were committing suicide. There were kids that were being bullied. And, the last -- the final incident was a very good friend of mine in West Hollywood on his way home from dinner was beaten with lead pipes. He's now completely a vegetable in a chair, disabled mentally and physically.

That attack reminded me of what had happened to me as a kid, and I need to reach out to do something, to take responsibility, to be accountable, to take a stand and not to stand in silence. It wasn't necessarily that I went there to find, you know, Tim. I didn't even know that whole thing existed.

PHILLIPS: And were --

BOGER: I started there as a volunteer.

PHILLIPS: So, you started there as a volunteer. And --

BOGER: Correct.

PHILLIPS: OK. And Tim, what about you? You know, you had this, you know, spiritual awakening of sorts. How did you end up at the museum?

ZAAL: There was a former racist skinhead who I used to be associated with, and I watched him leave. And when he left, he went straight to the Museum of Tolerance. I always wanted to follow him but I -- I wanted to leave, too, but I didn't have the guts at the time. It just wasn't my time, I guess. And I still had some more hating to do, I guess.

After I got out, years later, I ended up back. I had moved out of state, and I moved back to California, and I went to go see this man speak at a church. And when I saw him speak at the church, I thought to myself, I could do that. And I approached him, and I asked him if he thought that the museum would be interested in having me speak with them.

He was actually going on to do his own thing away from the museum and sort of opened up the door for me to come in, and I called them up, and next thing you know, they have me in front of thousands of kids. It was very scary the first time I did it, but -- That was history. I've been there for ten years.

PHILLIPS: OK. So now let's get to the moment how you two came together. Tim, you said you realized it was Matthew. How did you realize this was the young boy that you thought you killed more than a decade ago?

ZAAL: Well, between the two of us, the place that we were hanging out, and that particular night, I mean, it couldn't have been anybody else. I mean, he was talking about -- I was talking about a violent incident that happened that night, and then he started asking all these questions, and I kind of knew.

Something inside me told me, call it a God shot, I don't know. Something told me that this was the person. And we realized it at that moment, and it was very awkward, needless to say.

PHILLIPS: Matthew, what happened? Did you at any moment embrace? Did you want to, you know, punch him in the face? Did you -- what was going through your mind, Matthew, when you guys realized it was -- you were who you were?

BOGER: Well, I didn't think about throwing a chair at him instantly. That sort of came later.

(LAUGHTER)

BOGER: There was -- that moment happens where you clearly know who this is. And I just -- this -- all I said to him was, "This conversation is done. And I'm leaving." And I got up and I left. And it was another two weeks before Tim and I came together again face to face inside the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

But at that moment, I simply ended the conversation and got up and walked away. Everything that people think may have happened, like the anger and wanting to throw chairs, all of that played out in that two-week period before seeing Tim in my mind.

PHILLIPS: Amazing. Now you guys speak together. Tim, you've married a Jewish girl. Matthew, you say you trust Tim with your life. It's incredible. The friendship that you have formed and the speaking that you do. Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, if you haven't been there, you've got go see these guys speak. It's pretty remarkable.

I thank you so much for sharing your story. And what a message to the kids that are getting bullied nowadays and taking their life.

BOGER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: The two of you can make such a profound influence. I appreciate you both so much.

BOGER: Thank you so much.

ZAAL: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, guys.

Live pictures now from Chicago. More than 125 flights are grounded at O'Hare airport as nasty storms are moving through the Midwest right now. We're going to have the latest in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, there's shocking new claims about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and how he behaved before his 1991 nomination. You may remember that Senate hearing was catapulted back into the headlines last week. We learned that Thomas' wife had called Anita Hill and asked her to apologize for the sexual harassment claims that almost derailed the nomination.

Here's the text of that message. "Good morning, Anita Hill. It's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK. Have a good day."

Anita Hill is refusing to apologize and stands by her claims that Thomas harassed her with sexual remarks and frequent discussions of pornography. Last night on CNN's "Larry King Live," Thomas' former girlfriend broke her silence after 19 years. She said Thomas had a pornography habit in the 1980s. She also said Thomas may have been an alcoholic, but when he quit drinking he transformed into an angry, obsessive man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": What was his goal?

LILLIAN MCEWEN, JUSTICE THOMAS' FORMER GIRLFRIEND: His goal --

KING: His ambition was to be?

MCEWEN: His goal was to be on the Supreme Court. KING: That was his goal?

MCEWEN: Yes.

KING: And you're a lawyer and were an associate justice. Did you think he had the qualifications for the Court?

MCEWEN: That's a hard question, a complicated question to answer. Certainly, being a raving alcoholic for many years doesn't disqualify you in the United States from holding a high office. But the instability and the lack of intellectual curiosity, the inability to sit down and read something and concentrate it -- concentrate on it for a significant length of time, that makes it very difficult to do the job.

KING: He didn't grow, in other words?

MCEWEN: Grow? I would say --

KING: You have to have curiosity to grow.

MCEWEN: Yes, I would say he went backwards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: During last night's program, Larry King said that Thomas' office declined to comment on these latest claims.

If you've ever wondered how Ozzy Osbourne survived decades of booze, drugs, and partying, his DNA may hold the key. Putting his genetic code under the microscope to find out what keeps the Prince of Darkness rocking and rolling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures from Chicago right now. More than 125 flights grounded O'Hare. Pretty nasty storms moving through the Midwest and winds expected to possibly top 60 miles per hour. We're going to keep an eye on the developing story.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, rocker Ozzy Osbourne hasn't just lived the rock and roll lifestyle, he survived it. Decades of booze, drugs and hard partying later.

(VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. That's the prince of darkness singing about going off the rails back in 1980. But he's still going 30 years later. And it turns out one key to his resilience may be his DNA. It's just been mapped out through a special test and wait until you see who he's related to.

Here's one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Just because I'm doing a show about it, does not mean I endorse the theory of DNA, genetics, or natural selection. For all I know we're made of clay and animated by Zeus. By the way, that theory should be taught in schools right along DNA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The family tree doesn't stop growing with Stephen Colbert. Ozzy's also related to the notorious frontier outlaw Jesse James. Makes for a pretty diverse family album, don't you think? The genetic test shows that Ozzy resilience may be tested to two genes: the warrior gene, which makes him more likely to be an adrenaline junkie; and the worrier gene, making him more cautious and anxious.

John Roberts and Ozzy Osbourne go back a long time. A really long time, decades. And we figured of all people that he definitely gets the connection. That brings us to our AM Extra this morning.

So I guess we're not surprised that he's got the warrior and the worrier gene?

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": I wouldn't be surprised. You know, he does have genes that go all the way back to Neanderthal times. But, it should be said, though, Kyra, that anyone of European descent shares about four percent of their DNA with Neanderthals. So that means you and me, we both are part Neanderthal, which some to think of it, really isn't too surprising. I don't know why we should be surprised by that.

But it was very easy for Ozzy to get this all done. They just went to his home in Buckinghamshire, England. They took a little vile of his blood, they ran it through an G&E coding machine and they came up with this. But, what's really interesting, not so much the Neanderthal part, but the fact that he shares some DNA with the ancient Romans that died in the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in Pompeii.

And here's what Ozzy had to say about that. He said, quote, "If any of the Romans Osbornes drank nearly as much as I used to, they wouldn't have even felt the lava. They just could have walked it off."

PHILLIPS: And you know, you've actually had a chance to talk to him about this. And you even -- when you sat down and interviewed him decades later, you said, you know, I've known you for a long time and you've done a lot to your body. You've been very abusive and are you surprised you are still alive?

ROBERTS: Yes. I talked to Ozzy in 1985 in Rio de Janeiro. He had just come out of the Betty Ford clinic. And late last years I had the opportunity to interview him on the occasion of the publication of his new autobiography, in which you go through this and you wonder, Ozzy, how the heck did you survive? So, we talked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: You told me in 1985 that the reason why you went into rehab was you didn't want to die.

OZZY OSBORNE, SINGER: Yes.

ROBERTS: Are you surprised that you lasted as long as you did?

OSBORNE: I believe in miracles. I mean, every day -- once I was in New York and I got a half a pint of codeine, liquid codeine. I overdosed on that really bad. I nearly went into respiratory arrest, you know? I mean, that happened to me all the time. I'm lucky to have my life. But I'm just as lucky to have a family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: OK. We're still struggling to understand what he said. But bottom line is he's very lucky to be alive, yes?

ROBERTS: Bottom line is he is still alive and probably is lucky to be alive.

You know, the genetic sequencing also found interesting things out. That he's six times more likely to be addicted to alcohol. Yet at the same time, he carries a mutation in the gene that breaks down alcohol. He's much more able than most people are to break down alcohol, which he says is probably the reason why he drank up to four bottles of cognac a day and still survive. He's 1.3 times more likely addicted to cocaine but conversely, he is less likely to be addicted to heroin or cigarettes. And Ozzy said the reason why he never became a heroin junkie was because it just made him terribly, terribly ill any time he tried it. And easiest thing it ever was to kick was cigarettes. He was able to stop for years at a time and then he'd pick it back up again.

But now he's a pretty clean guy. He doesn't drink. To the best of my knowledge and doesn't smoke or smokes a lot less than he used to. But I think, though, the cumulative effects of all of the abuse are pretty apparent now at the ripe old age of 62.

PHILLIPS: Yes, ripe indeed. And he's going to be speaking about this genetic testing on a panel actually out in Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see how people react to that. It's amazing. He's got probably a couple more decades to go, as well. The warrior lives on.

ROBERTS: I tell you, he is a resilient fellow. No question about that.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Thanks, John.

Still ahead, our Don Lemon live in Indiana this morning, taking the pulse of the Midwestern voters.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Kyra. Good morning. You know what? They wouldn't give me the CNN Election Express to do the tour across the Midwest. Well, I got my own RV. What does it have to do with the economy and voters? A whole heck of a lot when your livelihood depends on it. We'll tell you about that coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, there's been some tough times since the recession hit Elkhart, Indiana. You may remember that we covered the story when the town's RV factory shut down.

CNN's Don Lemon is actually having a hard time today, too, because he was told he wasn't allowed on the CNN Election bus. Sop guess what he's doing? He borrowed an RV from Elkhart, Indiana, and he's just driving his own bus.

LEMON: Kyra, it's called ingenuity. When they said the Election Express was too far south to get to me, so I decided to get my own.

Hey, you know, everybody talks about, Kyra, you know this, the American Dream, owning a home, right? But for people of our generation, our families, they wanted to get out on the open road and this is what they did after they retired. You know, you made money, retired, you went out on the road and you drove around and this was your second home.

So this is what people would like to do but the economy has been really terrible. And this is the RV capital of the world, Elkhart, Indiana. But in recent months since the economy went bad, you know, they really suffered a major blow here. A lot of jobs here in Elkhart and in this area come from making RVs and they have had to lay off thousands and thousands of people because of the economy.

And it's a double whammy, too, Kyra. Because you know, the gas, it's expensive. One of these babies will set you back about $140,000. And if you're not making a whole lot of -- a lot of money, if you're out of a job, then you definitely can't afford one of these.

But here's the thing. A lot of people are voting. Most people will say it's the economy, it's jobs and it's an indicator when these aren't selling of just how bad things are.

There's Hank Schrock there, he is the guy who owns this. It's called "Total Value RV" and it's in Elkhart. You have been in business, what, nine years?

HANK SCHROCK, RV OWNER/DEALER: No, no ninth year, yes.

LEMON: How's it going so far?

SCHROCK: Well, it was going pretty good. I mean, last several years we took a double whammy on interest hike, gas spike and we also -- you know, the banks, trying to get them to loosen up the loan money and we're very optimistic that we're going to pull out of this.

LEMON: Yes but a lot of people here are out of work and they don't have jobs and this is what they did. I interviewed one man who was 62 years old and lost his job -- 1,400 people where he worked at the RV factory lost their job and it's going on all over this area. SCHROCK: Two years ago we employed 18 people and we're down to nine right now. And that kind of tells the story throughout this country or in this county.

LEMON: Yes and you said most of your business is from people who are outside of this area. So you know you feel it first, don't you?

SCHROCK: Feel it first. Because they travel to Elkhart and they have always heard about the RV capital of the world and like to come here, see them built.

LEMON: Yes. And people are voting on this.

SCHROCK: People are voting on this.

LEMON: We hear people talking about it when they come in.

SCHROCK: We -- we hear it a lot and we try to stay neutral on the subject because we don't want to get into an argument with a customer about who's politically correct.

LEMON: Yes. Yes.

SCHROCK: You know but -- we feel it and we see the people not coming into Elkhart like they used to --

LEMON: Yes, because of that.

SCHROCK: Because of that.

LEMON: So -- so Kyra, when you hear, you know people saying, hey, you know the president promised jobs, the president has been here three times. He came to Elkhart when he was running and then came to promote the stimulus and they are saying, hey, where is that stimulus money? When is it going to help us, when is it going to trickle down as they say? And that's what people are going to be taking in their heads when they go into the voting booth and as we say us old timers Kyra, pull that lever come Tuesday.

PHILLIPS: It's pretty impressive driving of the RV there, Don. You kind of got me in the camping mood.

LEMON: I wanted the big one. I wanted -- there's one big one here that as big as the Election Express. But they -- they didn't trust me. This is pretty nice, though. Look at this. I think we can pool our money and buy one and then we can just take the CNN NEWSROOM out on the road. I kind of like that. "Traveling the country CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra and Don all across America". What do you think?

PHILLIPS: There we go. We'd have our own show, we can interview interesting people. They can hop on board. I'm liking it. All right, we're going to -- we're going to -- you work out --

LEMON: That works for me.

PHILLIPS: You work out with our buddy there. We can get a little discount, you know, we'll go cross country. Hey, thanks, Don.

LEMON: Hey, we will, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

LEMON: And I want to say, hey, real quickly, I want to say that I heard you and Rob --

(AUDIO GAP)

PHILLIPS: Oh bummer, we just lost the connection. He heard something -- I'll have to find out what exactly he was talking about. Oh bad weather. And that was perfect timing. That's right. Rob and I we're talking about bad weather and there you go. It affected his connection there.

Anyway, we'll keep checking in with Don in his -- I guess part two of the CNN Express bus.

All right. You may now kiss the bride. Well, that is if you have a mirror. Why one woman is going against tradition and getting married without a groom.

All right, time now for "Flashback." Possibly the most immortalized 30 seconds in the history of America's southwestern frontier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here it is. Throw up your hands. Hold, not what I want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: On this date back in 1881, the script was written for the plethora of movies that followed heralding the battle for control of Tombstone, Arizona. Earp brothers along with Doc Holiday shot it out with Clanton and McLaury gang at the Ok Corral. When the gun powder cleared, well, three of the Clanton gang were dead. Two of the Earps and Doc wounded. You remember the rest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, scanning our "Morning Passport" now, we begin in the capital of Taiwan, Taipei where 30 something -- oh, we got Tony Harris joining in. Hi, Tony, we're live on the air. Do you want to join in on this?

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sorry Kyra.

PHILLIPS: That's all right, pal but I think you'll love this story, did you hear about this 30-something year old. This is Chen Wengyi (ph) and she's not waiting for Mr. Right, she's not waiting for you. She's actually getting married to herself, Tony Harris. That's right, you heard me right.

She is saying that she hasn't found a suitable suitor, so she's going DIY and solo.

HARRIS: Yes. Best choice over marrying me.

PHILLIPS: Ok, carry on, Tony. Carry on.

We're going to go Sydney, Australia now for the latest in flying footwear. The target, Former Prime Minister, John Howard, last night he was tossed not one but a pair of shoes from a critic of the Iraq war. Oh yes, it was live on television by the way. Neither have hit the former prime minister, but the shoe thrower says the studio won't return the sneakers.

Sad news out of Germany and the world of prognostication. Paul, the octopus, possibly the world's most famous tentacle fortune teller has died of natural causes. Paul you'll recall correctly predicted numerous World Cup soccer games this past year. Paul was a worldly two and a half years old.

An unborn baby safe and warm in its mother's womb. Well, if you think it's protected from toxic chemicals, sometime you say think again. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is actually on Capitol Hill today talking about the potential dangers.

We're taking a closer look coming up next hour right here on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right, let's take a look at what we've got ahead in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's start with Jim Acosta he's live in Philly this morning. Hey, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The balance of power in the U.S. Senate could hang in the balance in what's been dubbed sus- Pennsylvania. I'll have a live report coming up from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

MARCIANO: And I'm Rob Marciano from the CNN Severe Weather Center. A monster storm exploding across the upper Midwest, numerous tornado warning out damaging, and a blizzard warning to boot. Weather at the top of the hour.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Stephanie Elam in New York where we're looking at what comes first. Does success bring happiness or does happiness bring success? Kyra, you and I are going to talk about it in the next hour.

PHILLIPS: Sounds good. Thanks guys.

Tony Harris now in the house. You can hear him clapping. We need like a little music or a little something to kind bring you in.

HARRIS: You want FM through the segment.

PHILLIPS: Yes we need a little -- can we get a little of --

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: Is that how we're branding this? Are you going to watch the unveiling of the big super team, Lebron James, Chris Bosch, Dwyayne Wade, Miami Heat taking on Boston in Boston?

PHILLIPS: It's been a long time since I watched basketball.

HARRIS: Really?

PHILLIPS: Yes, but I still love the Harlem Globe Trotters. Does that count?

HARRIS: No. No. Not really.

PHILLIPS: Remember Curly? He kind of looks like you.

HARRIS: Thank you. I was hoping you'd say Meadowlark -- he was the fun --

PHILLIPS: Oh, Meadowlark Lemon. He's a cool dude -- very cool dude.

All right but the regular season kicks off tonight. Right?

Look at this. Look at how much of a production this has become.

HARRIS: Yes. It's all professional sports. Even the college game. I was at a Nebraska-Texas game a couple of weeks ago in Lincoln. And that's -- all of these sports teams now, they're huge productions. But everyone is looking forward to this game tonight to see how this game plays together. That's the big question.

Lebron James is making news. Have you seen the new ad?

PHILLIPS: Is this the Nike ad?

HARRIS: Yes. He's got a new ad for Nike.

PHILLIPS: let's look a little.

HARRIS: Yes. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, MIAMI HEAT: What should I do? Should I admit that I've made mistakes? Should I remind you that I've done this before?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should I give you a history lesson?

JAMES: What should I do? Should I tell you how much fun we had?

So this went well. Should I really believe I ruined my legacy? What should I do? What should I do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what you should do, Lebron, is stop making commercials. What you can do Lebron is play basketball. You should rock the rim tonight --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Show us what you are made of.

HARRIS: Yes. You know what you should do? You should make a Nike commercial where you show everyone, particularly young people, how hard you have to work to be, I think, the best player in the NBA. That's what you should do.

You should cut a Nike ad where you show us how hard you worked to be a good teammate. That's the Nike ad I'd like to see. I'd like to see the Nike ad where you are showing all of us how much time you're spending, how much you're giving of yourself in your community.

You're in Miami now. You're from Akron. I'd like to see that Nike ad. I don't want to see this stuff where you don't --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Tony Harris speaks and he will listen. Just like the hockey player responding to the kid playing with video game. That's right. You made your call to action. Lebron will call.

HARRIS: You rock star.

PHILLIPS: Oh, wait. I get to do the bump with you? A little fist pump and we have a little -- we need to get a little something, our own thing.

HARRIS: I'm with you.

PHILLIPS: Oh, coming. There's your exit. Give me a move out. Come on work it.