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Engine Failure in Midair; Obama's Strategy Moving Forward; 1860 Presidential Ballot Discovered in West Virginia; Looking Ahead to the 2012 Elections
Aired November 04, 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: Yes. It does feel like Friday. You poor thing. After nine hours. Kiran needs another little nap. I'll see you guys tomorrow morning, I hope.
It's not Saturday, it's Friday. All right. It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. It's Thursday, here's stories that we're talking about.
New jobless numbers just in. Not good news either for more than 450,000 Americans. They filed for first-time claims last week. Gloomy side ahead of tomorrow's monthly job report.
And an engine tears apart on one of the world's largest passenger planes. Raining debris over Singapore. Almost 500 people on that Qantas Airbus A380. Everyone on board is safe but they've got quite a story to tell.
And Haiti braces for a potential hurricane. Tomas spinning closer, expected to slam ashore. Now concerned ripples across the country where a million homeless earthquake survivors are facing a cholera epidemic.
Choose healthy food or no toy. San Francisco passes the so-called Happy Meal Law so kids craving an unhealthy fast food fix will no longer find a free toy at the bottom of the box.
Well, imagine walking off the plane and seeing this. A blown engine with burn marks. This potential disaster happened early this morning on a flight from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. One of the engines on a giant Qantas Airline blew just a few minutes before takeoff.
Here's how one passenger described it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ULF WASCHBUSCH, QANTAS PASSENGER: We heard a loud bang. And I was sitting right on that side where the engine is. A loud bang. There's a little bit of flares for a short time and the engine was shut off pretty much immediately from the flight deck.
On the flight deck, and the situation, just sort of Qantas crew, by the way, for doing a phenomenal job and bringing us down safely. We were afterwards circling for almost two hours. It felt -- at least one and a half hours it was. Dumping fuel and getting all the procedures ready to land safely on the ground again.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, parts of the engine debris fell to the ground and the plane made it back to Singapore OK but Qantas has grounded this kind of plane, the Airbus A380 now. It's the biggest airliner flying today. 466 passengers and crew were on this flight.
CNN's Richard Quest was on the A380's Maiden flight just a few years ago.
And, Richard, has anyone been able to -- nail down, rather, why this engine failed?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: No, they most certainly haven't. And that's going to be the job for Rolls-Royce, the manufacturers of this Trent 900 engine, and Airbus, the manufacturers of the A380.
The seriousness of the situation is that Airbus -- that Qantas has grounded its fleet of six of the flag ships.
Now, Kyra, I want to just take you and show you if I may. If you join me over at the wall, you'll get an idea exactly what -- this is what the Qantas A380 looks like normally. Now you can see this is the engine that would have been in the position. It's in reverse thrust mode at the moment.
But if you look at what the picture of the plane that's involved in this case, now you see right back here, you see the scorch marks on the engine. You see parts of the engine cowling, having fallen away and being blown off.
But this is the important bit, I want you to look at. Clearly when the debris came off the engine, and we think it might have been either a disk or a fan from somewhere near the front or the middle part of the engine, one of the spinning parts, when that left the engine and blew out the back, we see the scorching, it came through the wing.
Now as anybody watching will know, on the wing you do -- in the wing you have the fuel tanks, you have the fuel lines and you have some of the hydraulics. So from that point of view, the pilot landing this plane will have had -- will have not been able to use the reverse thruster. He will probably not been able to have the front slats, and certainly there will have been some structural damage, although the minor nature, to the wing.
PHILLIPS: All right. So let me ask you about when you -- because I remember covering this and you were live and you were on this Airbus A380 when it launched just a few years back. What are your impressions of what happened? And also, you know, when you were on that aircraft, kind of take us back because you gave us a firsthand explanation.
QUEST: The A380, there is no question, is a superb feat of engineering. It is large. It is quiet. It is the height of technology. It could be almost going past your front door at home and you wouldn't hear it. It's so silent.
As a plane -- but it is also fiendishly complicated to build and extremely complex to operate. The sheer size. Two or three decks. The two upper decks and of course the cargo deck below. So that gives you an idea.
To answer your fundamental question, which is what you're really asking, would I get on one of these planes today powered by a Trent 900 engine? Yes.
PHILLIPS: Wow. All right. Well, let us know as you follow the story, Richard, if you get any more information about what happened. Sure appreciate it.
We're also talking about the GOP takeover in the House. And it has Republicans dreaming about taking over a bigger House, the White House, in 2012.
Our latest CNN poll shows how some top names would stack up against President Obama. Two former presidential candidates would fare well. Mike Huckabee has a 52 percent to 44 percent lead in our poll. And Mitt Romney does just about as well, 50 percent compared to the president's 45 percent.
But in a matchup with Sarah Palin, our poll respondents say that the president would win.
Supporters of President Obama say it may be time for him to do a reset to help his reelection. Listen to this advice from prominent African- American scholar, author and radio host Michael Eric Dyson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, AUTHOR AND RADIO HOST: I say to Mr. Obama, especially, tell the truth about what you represent and I think millions more will respond to you.
Whatever you want to say about George Bush, he was clear on this. I'm the decider. I'm the president. This is how it goes down. Love it or leave it.
That's what you've got to do, Mr. Obama. Never thought I'd say that. You've got to be more like George W. Bush.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Wow. Suzanne Malveaux joining us from the White House.
So, Suzanne, are we going to see a different President Obama?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think President Obama would be very surprised to hear that advice coming from Professor Dyson, but one of the things that we can expect is that obviously yesterday was a stating the obvious, the shellacking that occurred in trying to buck up his supporters. Today is all about regrouping. The president is going to be meeting with his Cabinet within an hour or so to try to figure out what can they salvage, the agenda. What can they move forward? Perhaps try to get some consensus with the Republican leadership.
In the immediate short term here, the lame duck Congress, the session that's coming back before January's Congress takes place they're hoping that they're going to be able to extend some unemployment benefits, also work with the Republican leadership on a compromise, possible compromise when it comes to extending the Bush tax cuts.
And then also very important here is that the president is going to try to work with Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to allow military to openly serve -- openly gay military serve.
Those are the priorities immediately. But one of the things the president emphasized yesterday in the shellacking is that he recognizes that he's got to reach out to the Republican leadership and change the tone of Washington and how they're going to get business done.
Take a listen, Kyra.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We just had a tough election. We will have another in 2012. I'm not so naive as to think that everybody will put politics aside until then. But I do hope to make progress on the very serious problems facing us right now. And that's going to require all of us including me to work harder at building consensus.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So the question, obviously, Kyra, is what can the president build consensus on when it comes to Republicans? There are some things that they do believe when the new Congress comes into session they can work on, perhaps some education initiatives. Some ways of investing in new sources of energy that these are the kinds of things that are noncontroversial that they could find some sort of compromise and that is something that the president is obviously going to be looking at -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Interesting road to come. Suzanne, thanks so much.
And coming up in about 15 minutes, we're going to take a closer look at the power shift on Capitol Hill and what it means for you.
The vote counting goes on in more than a dozen races still. Two races in the Senate, 10 in the House still haven't been called yet. Four governorships still up for grabs. And you can read about all those races and all the latest political news and views on our Web site CNN.com/politics.
Well, the end of an era will have to wait just another day. The weather in Florida is so lousy that NASA actually scrubbed today's shuttle launch. It was going to be Discovery's 39th and final voyage.
Discovery has had a long, proud history. It flew the first female shuttle pilot, the first African-American space walker, and it took the first sitting member of Congress into space. That was Jake Garner of Utah, by the way, back in 1985.
Florida hasn't cornered the market in the lousy weather department at all, has it, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, no. The entire East Coast, Kyra, certainly getting it. Here's your rainfall from today. Why they canceled that launch. And tomorrow, around launch time, 66 degrees but the key here is it's going to be windy and that may -- you know, say no go because they got to deal with the winds not only at launch but potentially the emergency landing sites. And if they have strong cross winds and then they don't launch.
So we'll see. They might have to wait until Sunday to get this thing off the ground.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MARCIANO: Take a look at some of these video. Forget about the exact track or the strength of this thing. We're going to see tremendous amount of rain, potentially over a foot, and if you get winds gusting over 50 miles per hour, even 30 or 40 miles an hour, tropical storm force winds, these tent cities aren't going to do very well as you can imagine.
So they're trying to get people to schools and areas where there's some public facilities that are stronger structure but obviously that's only a very, very small percentage.
Kyra, back over to you.
PHILLIPS: OK. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Well, parents and kids beware. No more surprise toys in that Happy Meal. We're going to explain why one big city in the West Coast has made this change. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Driving "Cross Country" now, first stop, Washington. A big catch this week for Honey the dog. She grabbed the tasty salmon when it floated to the street from the rain-swollen river. No word on whether Honey actually shared her catch.
In Brownsburg, Indiana, dad versus an alleged bully. His weapon of choice? An electric shaver. But now David Carter faces an intimidation charge for threatening to shave the head of a 14-year-old girl. Carter claims that the girl had been bullying his stepdaughter. And a piece of history discovered in Boaz, West Virginia. A ballot from the 1860 presidential election. That was the vote that put Abraham Lincoln into office, by the way. And back then, yes, there was no hanging chads.
Each party printed its own ballots known as hand bills. Voters will pick a candidate, sign their name on the back, just drop it in the ballot box.
San Francisco is planning to take the surprise out of those fast food meals at restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King. In this fast food bill, too many calories will mean no toys for our kids. Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here. Outrage. Total outrage.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I'm sure some people are totally -- I'm sure my kids will be outraged.
PHILLIPS: And they don't get it. They don't understand. This is -- I don't know. A lot of critics saying this is -- there's other ways to fight obesity.
COHEN: Right. It is an interesting conundrum here. Childhood obesity is on the rise, it's at ridiculously high proportions. Everyone is worried about the health of our children, that our children aren't going to live as long as we do because of obesity.
So, the board of supervisors in San Francisco said "We're going to do something about it." No toy in a -- something like a Happy Meal unless it's lower in fat and lower in calories and lower in sodium.
Here you can see the kind of toys. Kids love these. No matter how many toys they have at home, they want a toy when they go to McDonald's or Burger King. And as we were saying, I'm sure some people would think that this is totally over the top, but maybe it's a good way of getting kids to eat healthier meals. If you say, "Sweetie, you can get the toy, you just have to choose something healthier."
PHILLIPS: All right, well, let's break down what's in a Happy Meal, and how bad is it?
COHEN: There are different varieties, so we intentionally chose one that's higher in fat and calories. Because this is the one that you can't -- or one of the ones that you can't get the toy for. If you in San Francisco, when this comes into action here, if you order a cheeseburger, small fries and soda for your Happy Meal, your kid's getting 640 calories and 24 grams of fat.
Now, take a look at that 640 calories, that is more than half the calories that your average 8-year-old is supposed to have in a day. So, in one meal, they're getting more than half the calories they're supposed to have in the entire day. You can see why a lot of doctors wouldn't like that very much.
PHILLIPS: OK, I understand. But what's McDonald's saying about this?
COHEN: McDonald's basically says, "Don't blame us for the childhood obesity epidemic in America." So, we asked them for a statement, and they said, "Most people, including children, eat the vast majority of their meals at home, not in restaurants. Moreover, McDonald's Happy Meals can be just as nutritionally balanced as school lunches or kids' meals served at home."
Now, the "can be" is sort of the important point here. When you go to these restaurants -- this wasn't always true years ago but, now, you don't have to get the fries. You can get apples. You don't have to get soda, you can get milk. But arguing with your child about this, I guess that's your business, whether or not you win that argument.
PHILLIPS: I guess you can start taking them someplace else. But what's -- we grew up with McDonald's.
COHEN: Right.
PHILLIPS: We grew up with wanting that hamburger, cheeseburger, fries, right?
COHEN: /Right. And there aren't always a lot of options. I know. I drive around with my kids, and you want something to eat, and you're not in your home, and there aren't a whole lot of options for healthy meals for kids all the time. Sometimes, this is where you end up.
PHILLIPS: Maybe we need to start a restaurant.
COHEN: I think we should.
PHILLIPS: There we go.
COHEN: Let's quit our day jobs. Here we go.
PHILLIPS: OK, here we go, we're onto something. Elizabeth, thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: We want the know what you think. Will taking the toy out of kids' meals actually help combat obesity, or should restaurants be able to include them in meals? Leave your comments on my blog, cnn.com/kyra. I'll read some of your thoughts next hour.
President Obama faces the music after Tuesday's crushing defeat for Democrats. We're looking at what the power shift on Capitol Hill means for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: President Obama calls the election a shellacking, and the tally backs that statement up. But this morning, we want to cut through all the bull and political back and forth and figure out what it all means for you.
Republicans have gained 60 House seats so far and six Senate seats. There's power in numbers, so Republicans are promising to challenge President Obama on some of his signature issues. John Boehner, the man who will become House Speaker, made that crystal clear on election night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), MINORITY LEADER: We must remember, it's the president who sets the agenda for our government. The American people have sent an unmistakable message to him tonight, and that message is, change course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So now, the White House is talking compromise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We just had a tough election. We will have another in 2012. I'm not so naive as to think that everybody will put politics aside until then, but I do hope to make progress on the very serious problems facing us right now. And that's going they require all of us, including me, to work harder at building consensus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So we want to look at what this power shift can mean for you. Your bottom line. Your health care. Our troops. Your kids' education. And our energy policy. Let's bring in two men who have worked for presidents, who have served through midterm elections.
CNN Senior Political Analyst Ed Rollins, live in New York, who worked for the Reagan White House before becoming his campaign manager. And in DC, Mack McLarty, former Chief of Staff for President Clinton.
Guys, let's get right down to it. Let's start with the economy. Far and away the most important issue to voters. Renewed focus on Bush tax cuts, of course. Here's what the president had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: My goal is to make sure that we don't have a huge spike in taxes for middle class families. Not only would that be a terrible burden on families who is are already going through tough times, it would be bad for our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Considering what he has now, Mack, can he do that?
MACK MCLARTY, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think he's got to thread that needle, Kyra, and I think he can. I think there's probably a compromise, an agreement on the Bush tax cuts, and I think the president clearly signaled and really stated, we've got to focus on the economy with much more precision, much more diligence than we did in the first two years.
PHILLIPS: Ed?
ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: There's no question. Republicans have never been in favor of raising taxes. So, I think obviously something can be worked out. At the end of the day, I don't advise the House Republicans. I think they're going to be more fiscally restrained than you've seen the Democrats the last couple of years. But I think the key thing here is setting priorities and basically figuring out how to get sufficient revenue to pay for it. We have trillion-dollar deficits planned now for the foreseeable future, and we've got to stop those and bring those down.
PHILLIPS: Talk about trying to work things out, Republicans made health care and that health care bill their prime target. Let's take a listen to what Boehner said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOEHNER: Listen. I believe that the health care bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country. That means that we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms that will bring down the cost of health insurance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Tell you, so many people talking about this. You talk about fear of gridlock. What now, Mack?
MCLARTY: I think it will be difficult for the Republicans to repeal the health care bill, particularly with the Democrats still holding the majority in the Senate.
I do think the president signaled yesterday he was open to tweaks, as he called it. But ideas, new ideas about health care reform, particularly restraining cost. So I think that's the route that's likely to be the course that the Republicans will take.
PHILLIPS: Ed?
ROLLINS: Clearly, Republicans would like to repeal it, and many of them promised to do that in the course of the campaign. I agree with Mack, it's not an easy thing to do.
I do think you have to have a whole new look at it. What really is the expense of cost? Is it going to be better? It was a 2,000- page bill. The implementation is over a series of years. The funding of those implementations are things that, obviously, the Republicans and the House and the Senate will have a big influence on, and I think there will be a lot of modifications. PHILLIPS: All right. Talk about some things that maybe might be a peaceful discussion, if we want to use that word, that might be a little too much. Education. You know? Head of education Arne Duncan says that he's optimistic that reform can be the great uniting issue, the bipartisan issue. Do you see that happening, Mack?
MCLARTY: I do. And I think you've got it right. Civil, constructive, serious discussion is another way to put it. I think that's clearly what the American people want, not only on education, which is absolutely crucial to our future, our children's future. I think this is a ripe area for bipartisan consensus and work together. I think the American people would welcome that. I think that was one of the messages, Kyra, of this election.
PHILLIPS: Ed, do you agree?
ROLLINS: I agree education is one place that, obviously, all sides want to make better in America. I think the big issue here, and we now have the majority of Republican governors across the country, is the federal government going to bail out states that basically can't afford teachers? I think that's been part of the responsibility the last couple of years.
We may not be able to borrow the money to continue to do that. We may have to basically sit down and collectively think in terms, how can we make education better? How can we make it more economical? And how do we basically take care or of kids? I do think this is one area most Democrats and Republicans care very much about the goals and objectives of our kids long term.
PHILLIPS: Final question, it could be a yes or a no. You know, eyes already turning to 2012, November 6th. Predictions, guys? Can Obama win a second term? Mack?
MCLARTY: You tell me how the economy is in 2012, and that makes that prediction a lot easier, and who the Republican candidate is. And you've also got what I call UFOs, that's unforeseen occurrences. It can change the political landscape in a dramatic way, as Katrina, BP oil spill, and so forth. But if I had to sit here today, I would say president Obama would be re-elected. That would be my prediction.
PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, Ed Rollins was having dinner with Mike Huckabee last night, Mack. We were trying to get some inside scoop from Ed. Ed?
ROLLINS: Fellow Arkansan. We were comparing notes on the election, as I said. Mike is a commentator doing very, very well. Great American and obviously is -- The key thing about re-election, a year ago, if we'd have sat her and had this discussion, everyone would have said that's pie in the sky to think that any Republican could beat Obama, who ran a brilliant campaign, has not been quite as brilliant in the presidency.
After this election this week, I think there's a lot of people looking at the electoral map and saying there's an opportunity here. This president doesn't have the same coalition, doesn't have the same states. And I think there will be numerous, numerous candidates who will jump in.
Re-elections are about the incumbent. If the country is looking for an alternative, they don't think the president has done an effective job, someone will emerge on our side. We have some outstanding governors across the country that basically -- and some Senators that will obviously run. There will be plenty of Republican candidates. We have a long, tedious process to get a nominee.
PHILLIPS: It's going to be an interesting couple of years. Ed, Mack --
ROLLINS: I think we have it -- I think -- I do think we can win, though.
PHILLIPS: All right. We're going to see. I'm going to bring you guys back in just a couple of years, OK? I'm going to have you -- I'm going to take this piece of our interview, and I'm going to --
ROLLINS: I hope before --
PHILLIPS: And I'm going to re-rack it.
ROLLINS: I hope we don't are to wait a couple of years to come back.
PHILLIPS: That's true. No.
ROLLINS: I hope we don't have to wait a couple of years. Bring us back before then.
PHILLIPS: We'll see you sooner.
MCLARTY: Look forward to it. Look forward to it.
PHILLIPS: All right. Ed, Mack, we'll have those Guinnesses waiting for you. Thanks, guys.
MCLARTY: Thank you very much.
ROLLINS: Take care.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
PHILLIPS: Here's stories that we're talking about this morning. A Qantas plane landed safely in Singapore after parts of the engine fell to the ground. The carrier has grounded it's Airbus A-380 fleet while today's incident is investigated.
And the launch of the last space shuttle flight has been delayed at least until tomorrow. Bad weather pushed back Discovery's liftoff.
And absolutely no booing for this lottery winning Canadian couple. Why? Well, they won $11 million and gave almost all of it to charity.
And you've heard the politicians and the pundits spin the midterm elections. Now it's time to get Lewis Black's take on it. Oh, yes. He's hilarious, he's a screamer, and he's frustrated. But he is definitely a political genius.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Oh, Lewis Black; comedian, author, and the company that makes high blood pressure medicine must love him because he's great business. Black was on "AMERICAN MORNING" just a little while ago talking about the midterm elections and John Roberts had a chance to have a little fun with him.
How much CNN coffee did he drink before that interview? I just want to know.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": You know, I didn't have my eye on him but obviously he drank a lot. He's a terrific guy. He is, though, loud. He does look like he's hyper caffeinated. And there's no question it's difficult to keep up with him. But he had some pretty interesting thoughts about the election. He says, first of all, he's glad it's over. He's glad that we can stop talking about it. But he's also concerned about what's going to happen in the future.
For example, I told him and I played for him Michelle Bachmann's quote last night on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" and when she said, hey, instead of sending the president to places like India, burning all that fuel on Air Force One, costing however many dollars it would cost, why not just use video conferencing to do these high-level world leader meetings?
And I said to him, that's an idea that you can probably adopt yourself, save yourself all this traveling across the country. Do your shows from your own home.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEWIS BLACK, COMEDIAN: I'd do it from my bathroom. I would never even leave the bathroom. Just sit there on my throne and we would discuss things.
What is the matter with them? What's really amazing to watch the people, hour upon hour upon hour of debates and this and that and the other and no one saying what they'll do. At what point don't we hold these people accountable to the fact to cut this -- what?
CHETRY: Are you talking --
BLACK: What are you going to do?
CHETRY: -- about the GOP?
BLACK: Both sides!
CHETRY: Everything? BLACK: Nonsense! Business is going to do this. What is business going to do? Government's going to do. What?
To me, it's simple math. You have one party that represents the government. You got one party that kind of represents business. They kind of represent these things.
We have to create a balance between business and government. We've been trying to do it for hundreds of years. Just stop. Stop it. Sit down. Figure it out. It wasn't tough for the founding fathers, you go in a room and you make them sweat like pigs.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: We have specifics on what to cut -- waste and fraud.
BLACK: Waste and fraud, yes.
CHETRY: And abuse.
BLACK: And abuse, all sorts of abuse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: I would love to see him moderate a few debates. All right.
And of course, he always takes a moment every time he's on the air with us, right, to give us a little advice here at CNN.
Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: If CNN wants to improve their ratings, take this crap off the screen. Dreaming of a Black Christmas. I've been talking about it. We've been talking about it.
CHETRY: That is your book though. You want us to take your book off --
BLACK: Yes, but are they deaf out there? They're not deaf. They know they're watching -- they know it's live.
ROBERTS: Oh, look. It's gone.
BLACK: "Little Wayne ready to party." Who cares?
(LAUGHTER)
I'm sitting here. We are sitting here. Get rid of live. We know it's live.
CHETRY: You want the live bug gone, too?
BLACK: Get rid of all of it. Every time I'm on, you guys. I'm serious, you got rid of all of it. Things would be better. We'd have a better America. A better tomorrow.
CHETRY: I hear you. Older people don't like that as much.
BLACK: Nobody -- kids don't like it. They don't know what's on there. They're looking here and here. I'm surprised you don't have that Dow Jones thing going at the top. Somebody's getting rich.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. I think it was maybe five years ago, I interviewed him, John, and he did the same exact thing with me. So, we're not listening to him.
ROBERTS: Can I tell you something? We got so much e-mail -- we get e-mail every day about the program. Today we got so much e-mail from people agreeing with him, saying, take that off the bottom of the screen.
PHILLIPS: That's right.
ROBERTS: Maybe --
PHILLIPS: Maybe he is on to something.
ROBERTS: I don't want to send a suggestion to the management but maybe he's on to something. I remember he had an interview one day --
(CROSSTALK) ROBERTS: We had an interview one day and I remember the stuff on the bottom of the screen came up to here on her.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, we'll bring him in maybe for consulting and less caffeine. That was fun, though. And he's pimping a new book. Really quickly, the title of it, it's "Black Christmas?"
ROBERTS: "I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas." It's musings about our favorite Christian holiday by an unmarried, childless, Jewish man.
PHILLIPS: Say no more.
ROBERTS: Who says that the whole momentum about Christmas is kind of like the running of the bulls at Pamplona. And the Jews are the people on the other side of the fence watching all this chaos occur. So, it's a great book. It's really very funny.
PHILLIPS: Lewis Black is chaos. That was fun.
Thanks, John. We enjoyed watching the interview.
ROBERTS: You bet.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, with the midterm election in the rearview mirror, some are already looking ahead to 2012. In our political update, find out who Republicans like for president.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Well, the election may be over but some races undecided and some candidates already looking ahead to 2012. Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political editor is awake and refreshed and ready for the political ticker.
Hey, Paul.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR: And back in D.C., too. So long, New York.
Kyra, it's Thursday, two days after the election. But the election is still going on. We got 10 House races, 4 governorships and 2 Senate races that are still unresolved.
Let's talk about Washington State. Patty Murray, the incumbent Democrat there and Dino Rossi, the Republicans. They're still counting votes in Washington State. They do it by mail there and you could mail it in as late as Election Day.
Let's go to Alaska, as well. That crazy three-way contest up there. We know it is not going to be the Democratic nominee, but it could be Joe Miller, the Republican nominee who was backed by the Tea Party. Or, it could be the write-in candidate, the current senator up there, Lisa Murkowski.
They're not count those write-in ballots until next week at the earliest and Joe Miller is saying, hey, let's take it easy, let's slow down here and let's not speed up the process.
Kyra, let's talk about the next election; enough about 2010 and the midterms. Let's move right ahead to the battle for the White House, the presidential nomination on the Republican side. Guess what. Guess who's going to be in New Hampshire today? Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania who may -- may want to run for the White House. We'll keep an eye on him.
And Reggie Sum (ph) our cameraman, zoom right in here to the CNN Political Ticker; a brand new video out this morning by Sarah Palin, somebody else who may want to run for the White House? This video she sent it out to supporters and it -- kind of looks like a campaign video, Kyra. So I guess the battle for the White House is under way.
PHILLIPS: Well, where -- where does the battle for the GOP presidential nomination stand?
STEINHAUSER: We've got some brand-new poll numbers. Now, you showed some of them earlier this morning on the head-to-head, the hypothetical head-to-head between the president and some possible Republicans.
But look at this specifically among Republicans, Republicans only and this is what we asked. Who would you most likely support in the battle for the presidential nomination for your party? Mike Huckabee, 21 percent; Mitt Romney, 20 percent -- both of them of course ran last time; Sarah Palin at 14 percent; Newt Gingrich at 12 percent; Ron Paul, who ran last time at seven percent. Let's go to the next page, you've got Haley Barbour of Minnesota -- the Mississippi Governor; Tim Pawlenty, and the Minnesota Governor, Mike Pence at three percent, congressman from Indiana. And Rick Santorum we're just talking about at two percent.
I tell you, these early polls, it's all about name recognition. We've got a long, long, long way to go in this one -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, we do. Thanks Paul.
The votes, the candidates, the balance of power; watch our next Political Ticker in one hour.
Chances are if you win the lottery and strike you're rich you've already thought of how to spend that money. Well, we want you to hear from a couple who says they have everything they need already. So, they just decided to help others.
But first, "Flashback": November 4th, 1967, the day Smokey Robinson and the "Miracles" released their single "I Second that Emotion." The song was the group's second number one hit; their first one, "Shop Around".
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PHILLIPS: All right, let's get in our "Morning Passport". We head to Canada where a couple won an $11 million lottery jackpot just a few months ago. Well, now that money is pretty much all gone. They didn't buy a car, a house or anything extravagant. Instead, they gave it away.
CBC reporter, Kevin Harvey introduces us to a Nova Scotia couple with some pretty great big hearts.
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KEVIN HARVEY, REPORTER CBC (voice-over): They still live in the same 147-year-old home. There are no new cars in the garage, and no giant TV in the living room. The Larges are just saying they haven't spent any of the money on themselves.
VIOLET LARGE, LOTTERY WINNER: Nothing. We haven't bought one thing. That's it, because there's nothing that we need.
ALLEN LARGE, LOTTERY WINNER: You can't buy happiness.
HARVEY: Or health, 78-year-old Violet is just getting over surgery and six chemo treatments for cancer, but it hasn't changed her outlook on life.
V. LARGE: And it could be worse because I'm not bedfast, but -- and I haven't been sick to my stomach. So, I mean, I'm -- I'm very fortunate.
HARVEY: One of the things the couple isn't worried about is what to do with all of that money. That's because most of it is gone; some to family, but the majority, they hand-delivered to charities.
V. LARGE: We made donations, which -- which really has perked us up. We helped hospitals and the fire departments and churches and the cemeteries, and all charitable donations we have given to, and they've all been well-appreciated.
HARVEY: The couple doesn't want to talk about how much each received.
V. LARGE: But when they seen the check, their eyes really opened up wide.
A. LARGE: It made us feel good that we could do something to help other people.
HARVEY: The couple knew the money couldn't help with Violet's health problems, so with the money out of the way, they are spending more time on Violet's recovery.
A. LARGE: She says I may not be able to get up and dance. I may not be able to get up and swing and fling or anything but she said I'm quite happy, I'm coming every day and feeling a little bit better, a little bit better every day so --
V. LARGE: And I've never been -- been down and out, so what more -- what more do you want.
HARVEY: Allen and Violet say they have kept some money for emergencies, and yes they are still buying lottery tickets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That is great.
Well, we are following a lot of developments in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's go ahead and check in first with Brianna Keilar -- Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there Kyra, what's next for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now the Republicans have won control of the House of Representatives? And what do Slurpees have to do with bipartisanship? I'll tell you at the top of the hour.
KATIE CAPERTON, CNN.COM: Hi, I'm CNN.com's Katie Caperton. I'll have the latest on Disney star Demi Lovato and more headlines from Hollywood in our entertainment round up.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Josh Levs. I have the shot for you that the world is talking about. What just might be the first photograph ever of a person, ever. I'm going to show to you in the next hour -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, thanks guys.
Also ahead, a college basketball player talks about the text message that made her make a dramatic change. And why she wants everyone to treat her like a man.
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