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Disappointing Unemployment Numbers for November; President Obama is in Afghanistan; LeBron's Sizzling Homecoming; Battle Over Tax Cut Extension; Tackling America's Debt; Human Factor: Living With HIV

Aired December 03, 2010 - 10:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7, stories happening right now you need to know about on this Friday, December 3rd.

Live at the Capitol, the lame-duck Congress and the White House closing in on a deal today to stop a tax increase that is coming January 1.

The Senate Armed Services Committee questioning the military's top brass about repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

And live at the White House, maybe from Afghanistan, President Obama talking about the brand new unemployment report this hour. We'll see.

We are checking with Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry and Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.

Let's get rolling with the disappointing unemployment numbers for November.

As you know, the Labor Department telling us the jobless rate inched up to 9.8 percent last month. You see the uneven trend on the jobs lost or created. Just 39,000 jobs added in November, enough to keep the economy spinning its wheels, but not enough to move it forward.

Let's get to our senior congressional correspondent now. Dana Bash is with us.

And Dana, I guess one of my questions for you is this: What is the lame-duck session of Congress going to do with this information? What happens? What kind of pressure does it put on Republicans taking control of the House starting in January?

DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, to answer your first question, I wish I could tell you that this is going to sort of change the dynamic here in Congress, but I think that the reality is that it is what it is, so to speak, and that Democrats and Republicans are kind of dug in. These numbers are obviously not good, but not surprising given what we have seen in the months past.

The Republicans, Tony, are already saying, ah-ha, Democrats should have known better when they voted, for example, yesterday to only continue some Americans' tax cuts and not others, that they say that will continue to hurt the job loss situation. But Democrats, what they are hoping, Tony -- and we can talk about this later in the hour -- but what they are hoping is that this can potentially give them leverage in part of their larger tax cut deal to try to push Republicans to accept longer-term extension of unemployment benefits, because this is a reality, these numbers.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

BASH: And people who are out there who are out of work, it is not getting better, and they just need government help. And that's what the Democrats believed for a long time.

HARRIS: Yes. OK, Dana. We'll come back to you a little later.

And again, I believe -- do we have the first pictures of the president in Afghanistan? Is that what we have?

OK. What we can tell you is that the president has made a surprise trip -- and really a surprise to everyone -- to Afghanistan.

Our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, is following this development.

And Ed, obviously, we have been reporting throughout much of the morning that the president was going to make a statement on the jobs report at about 11:15, and we thought that was going to come from the White House. Oh, what a surprise.

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, we have been picking up some behind-the-scenes speculation for almost an hour now that the president was likely to turn up in Afghanistan, but we've been very careful to sort that information out and make sure the president was there. We now have confirmed he is in Afghanistan.

We were also being extremely careful, of course, because of his security. Despite the speculation we were picking up -- and I confirmed this a short time ago with a senior official in the government who pleaded with me not to report it just yet. And so we now have confirmation though after that, that President Obama is in Afghanistan.

We're expecting him to speak shortly, but we have very little details at this moment because we are still trying to sort out exactly when he is going to start speaking. We are expecting him to meet with some U.S. troops there.

I mean, obviously, this is one of his most vexing foreign policy challenges right now, made even more complicated by these WikiLeaks documents coming out, suggesting that the U.S., in private, has real deep concern. We have already known some of that publicly, but in private, has even deeper concern about President Hamid Karzai.

And if you take a step back, I mean, this is -- it's frequent that presidents, vice presidents, over the last few years, both going back to the Bush administration and this administration, try to visit U.S. troops either in Iraq or Afghanistan around Thanksgiving or Christmas. In this case, President Obama was not in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving. That holiday has now passed, and he's planning to go to Hawaii for Christmas and New Year's.

So that also sort of makes sense in his calendar, that he would be doing this now, right around the holidays -- Tony.

HARRIS: Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry on the breaking news.

Let's get back to our lead story this hour, and that is the new unemployment report.

Alison Kosik is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

And Alison, it really seems clear here that this picture is pretty stark, particularly if you are a man looking for work now in this economy.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You said it, Tony. You know, we went ahead and broke down the numbers behind this sort of headline number that you see, and it's kind of this battle of the sexes. And it looks like that it's the women that are coming out ahead.

If you look at the unemployment rate by gender, a man's unemployment rate is sitting at 10 percent. If you look at women, it's at 8.4 percent.

This is because women tend to go for working in these growing fields like health care and education, while men tend to gravitate toward fields like construction and manufacturing. These are the areas that were really hit hard, where we saw jobs really go away.

Also, we see that women tend to go for those higher degrees like Ph.D.s and master's degrees. So -- and you how this is. You know, if you're educated more, the unemployment rate is going to be lower -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK, Alison. Appreciate it. Thank you. We will get back to you later in the hour.

KOSIK: You got it.

HARRIS: But right now, let's get to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

And Barbara, what are you learning about the president's surprise trip to Afghanistan?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, first of all, surprise, of course, because the security surrounding the president always totally extremely tight. And in this case, they wanted to make sure there were no leaks about his travel movements into Afghanistan. The situation there, of course, remains unsettled in so many parts of the country. We were checking with our sources earlier, and the weather is bad in Afghanistan today, as it often is at this time of the year. So it's a little unclear what the president's movements will exactly be, whether he will, in fact, be able to move at all around the country by helicopter or by aircraft, or whether he will, in fact, stay in virtual lockdown in one location.

What might be on his agenda? Well, of course, this month, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Eikenberry are due to review for the president their progress in Afghanistan, the so-called "December Review." Is the strategy working? Are they making the progress they want to make? So I think it's a very safe bet that this will be a major topic for the president and his commanders and his diplomatic team in Afghanistan to look at the progress in the war.

One interesting thing to watch for might be whether the president will directly meet with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and whether they will have any sort of joint press conference or joint opportunity in front of cameras. There's a lot of tension with Karzai and with the Karzai government about issues like corruption. And as we've just seen in some of these leaked WikiLeaks cables, the U.S. contingent in Afghanistan has been very concerned about some of President Karzai's somewhat erratic statements about his support for the United States.

So there's a lot on the table both in terms of President Obama's own agenda, what he wants to accomplish in Afghanistan, and what the Afghanistan agenda may be that he confronts while he's there.

HARRIS: Right. OK. Let's take that live picture again. And Barbara, thank you.

We don't have the picture. As soon as we get it back, we'll show it to you again, establishing where the president will be speaking. We expect shortly, but we don't have a fixed time on that.

In just a moment we will speak with Professor Thomas "Danny" Boston about the November unemployment report. His analysis important for the 15 million Americans who are out of work, underemployed. Let's have that conversation. And we'll do that in just a couple of minutes.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK. We have been getting signals and signs of a high- level visit to Afghanistan. We weren't sure which member of the administration was on his or her way to Afghanistan. We now know it's the president.

The president is there. That's the room that he will be speaking in and to troops shortly. Of course, when the president begins those remarks, we will take you to Afghanistan live, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. In the meantime, November's jobless rate up to 9.8 percent. We are waiting to hear from the president. Perhaps we will hear a lot on his agenda, obviously in Afghanistan, but maybe some comments about the November unemployment jobs report.

Let's get the view of it from Georgia Tech Economics Professor, our friend, Danny Boston.

You're disappointed, as many are, with this report. Tell us why.

PROF. THOMAS "DANNY" BOSTON," GEORGIA TECH: Right. Well, the report is disappointing because the numbers greatly underestimated the expectation.

HARRIS: Oh yes.

BOSTON: Now, what we have to keep in mind, however, is that we've seen this really kind of robust economic growth over the last two weeks or so, and unemployment is a lagging indicator. And so that, in part, that we might be seeing the fact that the growth will not play out in unemployment until another month or so. But as they're reported today, those numbers are very disappointing.

HARRIS: Well, and you started to explain it a bit there, but let me have you connect these dots here. We received an ADP repot on unemployment that indicated 93,000 private sector jobs created. And the markets reacted to that. We had a rally of over 200 points, and then we get this.

So can you square those two numbers? Is that the lagging indicator that you were just making?

BOSTON: Yes, that's it.

HARRIS: OK.

BOSTON: I think it's lagging. Now, ADP, for example, they are getting reports from companies that use their services. And so it's almost instantaneous, where the job numbers come from individuals going around to houses, knocking on doors, interviewing individuals.

HARRIS: Right. Right. I got you.

BOSTON: That takes some time.

HARRIS: What do we need to do here? I mean, we do this segment every month at this time. And is there a short-term fix, remedy that starts to send these numbers in the opposite direction, or do we just simply need to understand that it is what it is and we need focus more on long-term remedies?

BOSTON: Have to focus on long-term remedies. What these numbers are telling us is that there is no short-term fix, that we're getting all of this robust growth on the one hand, and those employment numbers are remaining constant. HARRIS: Can I stop you there? We have got Republicans who are going to be taking over the House now, and we have got the Republican leadership saying that we have got to focus like a laser on jobs.

Take Democrats out of the equation altogether. If you're a Republican and you're running the entire show, what do you do differently that, in your view, starts to turn these numbers in a better direction?

BOSTON: Well, the thing that you have to first remember is that there is no short-term fix. So there's nothing that you can do on the fiscal side or the monetary side to make things a lot better.

HARRIS: The new Congress comes in, in January, nothing they can do, say, in February or March that --

BOSTON: That's going to change people's lives who are unemployed. These massive numbers are going to be there for a while, so you have to focus down the road.

HARRIS: OK.

BOSTON: All right. Now, secondly, what needs to happen is there needs to be an environment in Washington that's conducive to economic growth.

We have all of this political acrimony, one side against the other side. And on the on the other hand, you have business owners that are trying to figure out what investment they are going to make over a 15-year horizon. So they need some type of certainty and stability to do that.

HARRIS: Wow. All right.

It's good to talk to you, as always. We've got to get back to the president's trip to Afghanistan.

Danny, good to see you, as always.

BOSTON: My pleasure.

HARRIS: Let's get to our senior White House correspondent. That's Ed Henry.

Ed, I know you're working your contacts and learning more about the president's trip to Afghanistan.

HENRY: That's right, his second trip to Afghanistan as commander in chief.

What we're hearing now is the president is going to be on the ground for about three hours. He's going to be doing -- he's got several of his top aides there like Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, also General David Petraeus, obviously the commander in the field. They're going to joining him at Bagram Airbase. Now, the president was supposed to go on to Kabul, to go to the presidential palace and meet with President Karzai. There is apparently bad weather there in Kabul, so we're now being told that the president, instead, is going to stay at Bagram Airbase for the three hours and then do a secure video conference with President Karzai from Kabul.

And then after that, we're told the president is also going to be visiting a hospital where he's going to award four Purple Hearts. He's going to be meeting with eight patients in all, five soldiers, three civilian contractors, who are in the hospital and have been injured during the war. Again, giving out four Purple Hearts.

And we're being told that Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, is basically saying that the broader focus of this trip is to just thank U.S. troops there on the ground obviously for the holidays, but for many years now in Afghanistan. And so that is the broader message of the trip, but then they're going to get down to some serious business with President Karzai.

As I noted a short time ago, the WikiLeaks documents, some of the cables that have come out, showing once again something we have known before, but adding a little more layer, a little more detail to the fact that the Obama administration still does not completely trust President Karzai, still has deep concerns about whether his government can get the job done in terms of sort of holding up their end of the bargain as this long, long mission drags on -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. OK, Ed. Appreciate it.

Let's get back to the Pentagon now and Barbara Starr.

Barbara, I'm just curious, when the president starts to have these conversations with the military leaders in Afghanistan, in the middle of the fight, what kind of an update is he likely to receive? For example, what is he going to hear about progress in, say, Helmand Province?

STARR: Well, you know, we actually have sat in some of these update briefings, not the level, of course, that the president gets, but they do provide these battlefield updates to media traveling in Afghanistan, and you do get a very comprehensive look. Typically, it starts with laying out for the president, reminding him, perhaps, of what troops are there -- Marines, Army, coalition forces -- what the insurgent laydown looks like, what kind of activity there has been -- IED attacks, sniper attacks -- what they're really dealing with.

But one of the things I think that President Obama is going to want to also see is the civilian side of it, if you will. What does the Afghan governance look like? How well is the Afghan government functioning down there? What kind of economic development has there been?

And a lot of questions about Afghan security forces. How many trained and equipped Afghan army and police forces are there? You remember that whole construct from the war in Iraq. I mean, very much in this type of combat situation, it's getting the Afghan forces trained up that is going to be the route home for U.S. forces. And that's what President Obama wants to hear about. How to get U.S. forces out of there, getting the Afghans trained up, is going to be the way ahead.

So there's going to be a very detailed laydown. They're going to look area by area, how it's all going.

When we were there, Tony, we even saw maps that were colored red, yellow and green, traffic light signals, if you will, about how the fight is going, what areas are looking good, what areas are not -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, let's be frank about this, Barbara. You have been in country enough to have a real assessment on this.

If the president is asking, how are we doing in training up Afghan forces, it sounding like in some of your reporting and some of the reporting that I've been following, that he's going to get a statement that essentially says it's uneven. There are areas where we've got Afghan forces that are taking the fight to the enemy, and that we still have areas where there is a problem with desertions. Correct?

STARR: Oh, you know, it is uneven, to say the least. That would be a very diplomatic way of putting it, I think, Tony.

You're absolutely right. In Afghanistan, the war is a very different fight, really, valley to valley, mountain top to mountain top, village to village.

Generally speaking, the Afghan army is making some progress. There's a lot of concern about the Afghan police force.

This is where corruption on the local level, on the provincial and district level remains very problematic. This is really a lot of what the U.S. has really been working against.

It is the corruption that is endemic in Afghanistan that is problematic, and the inability of the Karzai government so far to really function across the board. You know, there has been this longtime saying that President Karzai is the mayor of Kabul, the capital. You know, that's the area he controls.

Does he control outside of Kabul? That's an entirely different question.

HARRIS: Right. Barbara, appreciate it. Thank you.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, and our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, as well.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, boy, did you watch the game last night? LeBron James showing Cleveland what it will be missing. And it was spectacular. His first game back in a Miami Heat jersey. We will check out his performance.

Rafer Weigel is here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We will talk to him about LeBron.

You saw that last night, I know you did.

RAFER WEIGEL, SPORTS ANCHOR, "MORNING EXPRESS": Oh, yes. Absolutely.

HARRIS: And Michael Vick as well.

WEIGEL: Absolutely.

HARRIS: OK.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I've got to tell you, if you saw the game last night, you saw an on-fire LeBron James in his return to Cleveland, 38 points. Boy.

Rafer Weigel is here from the "Morning Express" with Robin Meade.

Did you get my autograph on Robin's book?

WEIGEL: I'm working on that, man.

HARRIS: OK. All right. Good.

WEIGEL: She's hard to track down.

HARRIS: No, no, no, no. I get that. I get that. But I want it. All right -- willing to pay a little bit.

So you saw the game.

WEIGEL: Yes. I mean, look, like you said, 38 points. This is a guy who clearly relishes the role of villain. I mean, this guy was booed, he was booed early and often as he's being introduced here.

Listen to this.

HARRIS: Let's listen to this.

And this was a bone of contention here. What did he do --

(CROSSTALK)

WEIGEL: There's talc in the air, because he started in this Cleveland. There was a big debate, out of respect to the fans, would he not do it? And he did indeed do it.

HARRIS: Yes. Did you see that as being disrespectful? He does it everywhere. WEIGEL: He does it everywhere.

HARRIS: Yes.

WEIGEL: He has to go about his routine.

HARRIS: Right.

WEIGEL: And he scored the most points he scored all season long, and he did it in three quarters. And I will Cleveland fans credit. They showed him how they felt about him, but they did it in a classy way.

There was one arrest and four ejections. And we thought there was going to be more. We were talking about it off camera. We thought a cell phone -- I mean, you don't know. And no disrespect to Cleveland, but the level of passion and hatred for this man is so high, and then he goes out and actually blows them out.

HARRIS: And he annihilates them.

WOLF: Annihilates them. Here are some of the T-shirts, some of the signs, "Witless," "The Lion King." They were chanting some things we can't say.

HARRIS: Don't they also have to be a bit disappointed? I'm talking about the fans in Cleveland.

This is a guy who clearly said, I need a better team. If we can put a better team around me, we can win championships here in Cleveland.

OK. They won 61 games last year. They had a remarkable season. But when they played the really tough competition, they didn't have enough, right?

WEIGEL: Absolutely right. And then some people blame LeBron for that, but he said he didn't have a supporting cast.

HARRIS: Right.

WEIGEL: So then they go out, and the owner, Dan Gilbert, told his players, look, you win this game -- and it was a 28-point blowout, and it wasn't even that close.

HARRIS: And it wasn't that close. Dude was done by the end of the third quarter. He didn't even play the fourth quarter, did he?

WEIGEL: He didn't even come back in, no.

HARRIS: OK. So let's talk about another pretty remarkable performance last night. Again, we're talking about Michael Vick again.

WEIGEL: Yes. Well, it's a good story.

HARRIS: It is a good story.

WEIGEL: I mean, regardless of how you feel about him, you're looking at something --

HARRIS: And there are a lot of opinions out there, as I've learned over the weeks, yes.

WEIGEL: And all of them are valid. Well, they're all valid, and they're allowed to have those feelings.

So let's just take the emotion out of it and look it from a purely journalistic point of view. This is an amazing comeback story.

Last night he led them to another comeback win. He threw for over 300 yards.

HARRIS: That's a great point, yes.

WEIGEL: Why is that important? This is the third time he has done this in the past four games, 300 yards.

Prior to this season, he threw a total of two 300-yard games in seven seasons. This is a different man on the field, and we are now talking about him again as the most valuable player candidate for the NFL, which is an amazing proposition considering he was in prison 19 months ago.

HARRIS: And they are -- the eagles are what, 8-4?

WEIGEL: They're 9-2. They're tied -- yes, they're 9-2. They're tied with the Falcons for the best record in the NFC. They are in first place. They're tied for the best record in the NFL, along with the Jets and the Patriots.

HARRIS: If you're wrong on that, and I think you are, you are going to get me lunch.

WEIGEL: No, they're 9-2.

HARRIS: I think they're 8-3 or 8-4.

WEIGEL: No, man.

HARRIS: If you are wrong on that again, for like the second week in a row, you are buying me lunch! It is outrageous!

It's good to see you, as always. You're right.

Rafer, good to see you.

WEIGEL: Am I right? OK. I hope so.

HARRIS: I don't think you are.

WEIGEL: Oh, no. They're 9-3.

HARRIS: They are 8-4!

WEIGEL: They are not 8-4.

HARRIS: They are 8-4.

WEIGEL: All right. I'm going to be back next --

HARRIS: What is with you?

WEIGEL: All right. Well --

HARRIS: All right. Do the walk!

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: It is the walk of shame for Rafer Weigel.

It's good to see you.

Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, who is the richest man in the world, and how did he earn all of his money?

We will tell you in 90 seconds.

Rafer, come back . Really.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The richest man in the world, there he is, Carlos Slim. His net worth was listed at $53.5 -- are you kidding me? -- billion this year. He made his fortune investing in undervalued companies, including buying MCI, which Verizon then purchased. Watch him tonight at 9:00 Eastern on "LARRY KING LIVE," right here on CNN.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Republicans and the White House are trying to cut a deal today to stop a tax hike that is coming in just 29 days.

Dana Bash is at the Capitol.

And Dana, if you would, let's start here. Describe the deal on extending the Bush-era tax rates with the understanding it is still very much a work in progress.

BASH: It is very much a work in progress, but I'm told by Republican and Democratic sources that what's in the works is extending all tax rates for all income levels for about two years. Maybe three, but probably two, that that is sort of the gist of something that is in the works. In fact, one source said to me, "The goose is cooked on that."

The larger question, particularly that's coming from Democrats, because they believe that is a big concession, is what are they going to get for that? And they have a whole long list, wish list, if you will. Unemployment benefits, that is sort front and center. They want to extend those, I'm told, maybe even as long as 13 months.

Also, to do some of the tax credits that don't have that much of a spotlight on them, but are also expiring. Make work tax credit, the college tuition tax credit, things like that the Democrats are really pushing to get this into this, what they hope will be a larger package that will be part of this deal.

Now, Tony, what is very interesting to me is I was hearing really all day yesterday from Democratic sources here at Capitol Hill was concern. Concern that this deal would not really benefit them and that in the words of one Democratic source, the president would cave, would cave on Democratic priorities when they're working this out.

A lot of mistrust. It's very interesting. It seems to be growing among Democrats for their fellow Democrat in the White House.

HARRIS: Well, explain to me if we are working on a framework and parts of it are baked in at this point, that Democrats, Senate Democrats are planning a vote tomorrow on tax cuts. Can you explain that for us?

BASH: Yes. We saw the big vote on the House side on the same thing. It's for the same reason, and the reason Democrats want to have this vote, despite the fact that there are negotiations going on, is because they want to get on the record.

Democrats want to get on the record with the fact that they fundamentally, for the most part, believe that the only thing they want to extend are tax cuts for those making $250,000 or less. They want to let everybody else expire on the tax cuts and they would effectively go up for everybody else in America. That is something they have been pushing.

They are going to have that vote probably at this point tomorrow, Tony. Republicans are going to have to get their vote out there as well. It's all about posturing, frankly, and getting on the record because they know at the end of the day, the votes aren't there for any of that in the Senate and they're going to have to cut the deal and at least the framework of which we just talked about.

HARRIS: Our senior Congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

And just a moment there as Dana was speaking about the votes likely to come, you saw some pictures on the air of Air Force One. The president climbing down from Air Force One -- Do we have those pictures? Do you want to run those now? -- and meeting with General Petraeus.

These pictures into CNN just moments ago. The president is, from this location going, we understand, going to a hospital where he will meet with eight patients -- five soldiers, three civilian contractors. He will award, as you heard from our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry, four Purple Hearts. And then we have been showing you a shot of an auditorium where the president will be making comments. There's the president now. I believe that was president. The president will be making comments to the assembled military personnel. And, of course, when the president begins those remarks, we will take you back to Afghanistan.

Right now, let's go to a break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Once again, we thought we had the picture framed up perfectly a moment ago. We didn't. Here it is, here is the president deplaning Air Force One in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Force Base greeting Ambassador Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, and General David Petraeus.

Again, the president will be making remarks, we believe, shortly, from that hall right there to assembled military personnel we expect shortly. When the president begins those remarks, we expect shortly, we will bring those to you live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

OK, checking the day's other big stories, a presidential commission's $4 trillion debt-slashing plan draws bipartisan support, but not enough to recommend it to Congress. It needed the support of 14 of 18 commission members, it only received 11.

So who are those saying no? Senator Max Baucus of Montana, Representative Xavier Beccerra of California, Representative Jan Shackowsky of Illinois, Andrew Stern the President of the Service Employees International Union, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Now earlier we asked folks what they would be willing to do to cut the deficit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we all need to be responsible and grow up and we need to cut across the board.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn't cut in the school system because I feel like the school system is, you know, the future of our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would raise the retirement age because everybody is living longer, working anyway, so you might as well raise that. I would not cut education, because that's the foundation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would support raising the retirement age up to 68, because it's done over a longer period.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I tell you the truth, I am really sick of this country being at war and the amount of money that gets spent on the wars that we have been on could do a lot for a lot of the domestic concerns that are just critical.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Military, I don't think you can cut it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would extend the Bush tax cuts, that, I think, would inspire our economy, our small business owners to be able to get into the habit of feeling more comfortable to grow their businesses and to, you know, not be taxed with those growths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I think the announcer for the Cavs. I would be surprised if he isn't. But they used to play the games at the Richfield Coliseum, and we used to call it the "Richfield Mausoleum" because there were no Cavs fans that would drive that far out there to see a team that was that bad. That -- that -- you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get emails from Cleveland now.

HARRIS: It's true, I was there for nine years. I'm telling you and I went to those games.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Hey, you know what? Roger, do we have that picture of that auditorium there in -- OK, we don't. All right, we'll do that story in just a moment.

We want to show you a piece of video that's really gone viral. This is flash mob, right, at a mall food court, it's in Canada. The video has gone viral.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: You're having your lunch and the next thing you've got the Hallelujah in your ear, right? And it sounds pretty good.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It sounds great.

HARRIS: It sounds great. So, we've got more than, what, 100 people serenading unsuspecting shoppers. Now the last time we aired the video, I think you were here with us, Reynolds, it was about a week ago --

WOLF: Indeed.

HARRIS: -- it had been viewed more than is million times on the web. Today, that number is 7.5 million and climbing.

Have a listen as we go break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Very quickly now, we want to give you an update on the president's traveling in Afghanistan. We've got pictures, let's loop in the pictures of the president arriving and deplaning Air Force One just into the NEWSROOM not that long ago and meeting there on the ground with Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and General David Petraeus.

We understand that at some point, the president is on the ground for three hours, he will speak to troops, but we can't even begin to give you a timeframe on when the president will speak to the assembled military personnel.

We understand that the president is going to meet with General Petraeus and Ambassador Eikenberry, and then he was going to make a trip to the hospital there at Bagram where he will meet with eight patients, five soldiers, three civilian contractors While there, he will award four Purple Hearts.

And we understand now that the president will have a phone conversation, not and in-person meeting, but a phone conversation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. We won't, obviously, get video of that. And not sure when the president will actually speak to the assembled military personnel you see on the screen now.

But the president is on the ground for three hours. Difficult to get a real fix on the agenda because of weather issues and other technical problems. We will continue to follow developments of the president's surprise visit to Afghanistan.

Jake Glaser's mom passed HIV onto him after getting the infection through a blood transfusion. He has been HIV positive his entire life, working to prevent the spread of the disease through education.

Here is our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jake Glaser has lots of passions -- riding his skateboard, photography, making gelato --

JAKE GLASER, SON OF ELIZABETH AND PAUL MICHAEL GLASER: Looks good, doesn't it?

GUPTA: -- and being a spokesman for the found his mother, Elizabeth Glaser created.

Jake was born with HIV, passed on to him by his mother at birth. He had to learn at a very young age how to overcome living with this virus. I spoke with him earlier this year.

GLASER: When my sister passed, I was 3 turning 4 years old. It was something that was relatively difficult for me to grasp, but, you know, when my mom got sick was when I really faced the actuality of I am HIV positive and this is something that can affect you.

GUPTA: Jake says his parents blessed him with a healthy immune system and so far, he has not been sick. GLASER: I was born with HIV. It was not something that I had a choice about. When I speak to people about it, I have no issue telling anybody that I'm HIV positive.

GUPTA (on camera): People who don't know your story, when you tell them you have HIV, does that stigma still exist? Do you feel that?

GLASER: I do a lot of photography and I film and the skateboard in the action sports world. One of the people that I was filming with, one of the kids, found out just through talking with one of my friends that I was HIV positive, and he expressed that he was afraid to touch me.

It was something that I hadn't dealt with since my childhood. I kind of told everyone, stop what you're doing, let's talk. And it was honestly, as simple as he just didn't have the information.

GUPTA: That's quite a moment. I mean, stop the shoot and you said all right, this is an opportunity to educate.

(voice-over): And that's exactly what Jake plans to continue, to educate, particularly young people, who, unlike himself, have a choice and can prevent getting infected with HIV.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Taking a look at "Top Stories" right now.

Israeli police think arsonists are behind this wildfire raging in northern Israel. They've discovered suspicious materials where one of the fires started. It is the worst wildfire in Israel's history, killing 41 people and burning 3,700 acres.

U.S. and Japanese forces launched their largest joint military exercise while tensions simmer on the Korean peninsula. More than 10,000 U.S. troops are taking part in the Keen Sword drills.

And 80-year-old Congressman Charlie Rangel responds to a House vote to censure him for ethics violations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: I know in my heart that I'm not going to be judged by this Congress, but I'm going to be judged by my life, my activities, my contributions to society. And I just apologize for the awkward position that some of you that are in.

But at the end of the day, as I started off saying, compared to where I've been, I haven't had a bad day since.

Thank you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: So what are the best movies to watch this holiday season? Here is the list from "Unreality" magazine.

Number eight, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Number seven, "Home Alone."

Six, "Elf."

Five, a favorite around the Harris household, "Bad Santa."

The top four in 75 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Counting down -- aw, I love that song. Sorry, counting down the eight must-see Christmas movies from "Unreality" magazine.

Number four, "It's A Wonderful Life."

Number three "Scrooged."

Number two "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

And number one "A Christmas Story."

Donny Hathaway, "This Christmas." That's a classic. OK, some of the stories we're working on next hour.

Man has a camera surgically implanted into the back of his head. We'll explain why on earth he did that.

And drivers stranded in the snow for almost 20 hours, you will hear from the office worker who resorted to unusual measures to help people out.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Battle of the books, George W. Bush tangles with Sarah Palin. Brianna Keilar, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," love now from Capitol Hill.

And who is winning this tussle, this battle of the books, Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you surprised by this? It's George Bush. It is. This is on the Ticker right now at CNNPolitics.com. When you put the former president against the former governor from Alaska, in terms of their book, he wins.

He is number one right now on "The New York Times" hardcover, non-fiction list three weeks in a row. Her book just came out. His book is "Decision Points." Hers, right, is "America By Heart." Hers just came out this weekend, she's number two. She tweeted that he has a good book, Tony, so I guess there's no hard feelings there.

And let's talk about another story on the Ticker, this is about the Deb Commission and it's very -- this presidential Deb Commission, very controversial plan to trim $4 trillion in federal debt. It's getting some pretty strong bipartisan support. Eleven of the 18 bipartisan panel members at this point throwing support behind it. They need 14 out of 18 to give an official recommendation from Congress, but fiscal experts say the more support they have, even if they don't get the 14, the more impact they're going to have on Congress, especially next Congress when they start dealing with deficit issues.

Also, you know those jobs numbers are out, we've been talking about this all morning. Well, Republicans are on the attack over this. Thirty-nine thousand jobs only created in November and the unemployment rate going from 9.6 percent to 9.8 percent. That has Republicans, like House Minority Leader John Boehner, saying that Democrats are concentrating on meaningless legislation and Republicans say this makes their case for extending all of the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire end of the year.

Most Democrats want tax cut force the wealth -- -- pardon me, Republicans want all of them extended -- I'm tripping over myself -- and Democrats want to let them expire for folks making over 250,000 or more. Really, wealthy Americans, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, look, it's not easy to sort through it all the revisions and changes, through the various talking points. Nice job, Brianna.

KEILAR: Exactly.

HARRIS: Brianna Keilar for us on Capitol Hill.

You're next political update coming up in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know where to go, it's CNNPolitics.com.