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39,000 Troops Set to Be Home From Iraq By New Year's; What's Next For Libya?; Advice For Managing Your Finances Online; Birth Rate in America Dropping; Top Movies for the Halloween Season; Mark Whitaker's Long Trip Home

Aired October 22, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live this Saturday, October 22. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

An emotional day for friends and family members of racing veteran Dan Wheldon. They paid their final respects at a funeral services in St. Petersburg, Florida, this morning. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner died in a painful crash last Sunday in a Las Vegas race.

And Saudi Arabia is mourning the loss of a royal family member. The crown prince Sultan died earlier today in a New York hospital. He was first in line for the Saudi throne and was the country's defense minister. The prince was believed to be in his 80s. He had reportedly been battling cancer.

Folk music icons Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie joined Occupy Wall Street protesters. Seeger, who is 92 years old, joined marchers after performing a concert. Arlo Guthrie said the protests reminds him of the unrest of the '60s.

An update -- the protester that climbed a 70-foot high sculpture in Zuccotti Park, well, he finally made his way down safely. When he did he was greeted by police, who immediately arrested him.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is hoping to hold on the his job today. The state is holding its gubernatorial primary. It's a nonpartisan contest where all candidates compete. Whoever gets 50 percent or more of the vote wins the race.

Here in America and halfway around the world celebrations as the U.S.- led war in Iraq draws to a close, a nine year war that has cost the U.S. more than $700 billion. More than 4,400 American troops have been killed, and 34,000 injured. President Obama has decided to bring the remaining 39,000 U.S. troops in Iraq home by the end the year, and only a handful of troops will stay behind to assist Iraq in arm sales.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Iraq we've succeed in our strategy to end the war. Last year I announced the end of our combat mission in Iraq. We've already removed more than 100,000 troops, and Iraqi forces have taken full responsibility for the security of their own country. Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, the Iraqi people have the chance to forge their own future. And now the rest of our troops will be home for the holidays.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: President Obama's decision to end the war in Iraq means the next couple of months will be filled with welcome home ceremonies. Here's what some of the troops and military families are already saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY SYMONDS, SON FOUGHT IN IRAQ: Not only is my son coming home safe and sound to us as a family, our family is whole again. And I'm very thankful for the job that him and all his fellow soldiers have done for us.

SGT. JERRY RUPPELT, U.S. ARMY: It's time to bring our boys home. It's time for them to come home to their families. They shouldn't have to be over there.

SPEC. TIM KOSTER, 362ND MOBILE PUBLIC AFFAIRS DETACHMENT: Especially coming home over the holiday time is going to be great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A Florida woman was planning a low keyed Christmas but not anymore. With the war in Iraq ending her husband will be home just in time for the holiday. Here's reporter Althea Paul with our affiliate WTSP.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALTHEA PAUL, REPORTER, WTSP: With giggles and smiles, it's almost as if seven-month-old Indiana knows her father will soon be coming home, Army reservist first lieutenant Joshua Chapman in Iraq since August. His wife Brandi, thrilled.

BRANDI CHAPMAN, SOLDIER'S WIFE: My first reaction is yippee, you know, to have him home early, because obviously he was looking at like 400 days or something.

PAUL: With President Obama's announcement that all troops will be withdrawn from Iraq, Chapman should be back in the Bay Area just in time for the holidays. No low key Christmas is planned any more.

CHAPMAN: Just want to have a big shindig, just really celebrate, because it's really big.

PAUL: Soon no more constant worrying.

CHAPMAN: I feel, I guess, lucky in a sense that I didn't have to be away from my husband that long, but I mean it's hard. I mean it really, really is hard. PAUL: Brandi says she's talked to her husband about the withdrawal and he says soldiers' morale really has picked up and ready to pack up and head out. Now this wife is just waiting.

CHAPMAN: Now that you know they are is going to be home you just want them to get home. Let's pray nothing happens for just this last month or two.

PAUL: So that Indiana can trade in her daddy doll for the real thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Reaction to the Iraq withdrawal in Washington is mixed. CNN's Athena Jones joins us from the White House on more with that. In what way, Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly if you talk to Democrats you'll hear one thing and if you talk to Republicans you'll hear another.

From the administration's point of view this is an example of a promise kept. President Obama ran on the idea that the war in Iraq needed to be wound down so that we could focus more efforts, the U.S. could focus efforts on Afghanistan.

You'll know that leading up to the war in Iraq he was against it. He called at it rash war, a dumb war. And his opposition to the war in Iraq is something that set him apart from his other candidates in the democratic parties last time around. And so the idea here is that he's done what he said he was going to do.

Let's listen to what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to say. She's traveling in Asia and she spoke in Tajikistan earlier today. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This marks a new phase in our relations with Iraq. President Obama promised the Iraqi people and the American people that all our combat troops in Iraq would come home by the end of this year, and they will. That will end the war, and it will open a new chapter in our relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there you have it. Of course, when it comes to Republicans, the response has been a lot more critical. You have Democrats applauding this move saying it's going a victory for taxpayers, it shows all of the efforts and sacrifices of the American soldiers and troops there have led to this great moment.

On the Republican side you have people thinking maybe this is too soon to pull out all of our troops. Let's listen to what one New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. KELLY AYOTTE, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: I'm proud of the work that my husband did there and the other soldiers, and I think that we will be better off in the world in the Middle East by having a secure democratic Iraq, and that's why I believe it's very important that we do not withdraw these troops prematurely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, Senator Ayotte's husband was an Iraq war veteran and she's expressing some of the concerns of members of her party and others about the idea that maybe Iraq, can they secure their own -- can they make their own land secure? And what about Iran and the influence there? Will it grow as the U.S. pulls out? And so those are some of the concerns and some of the criticism.

But it's important to remember that this agreement, the security agreements were reached by the Bush administration in 2008 to withdraw troops by this date, December 31st. So those are two important points to consider, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Athena Jones coming to us from Washington.

JONES: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Stability in the road ahead for the country of Libya, that's what a number of people are starting to ponder as well. They fell to their knees in that country. They are ecstatic that Moammar Gadhafi is now dead. But the serious business of what now hangs over the new Libya's government or leadership has at hand. We're live from London next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The people of Thailand are enduring the most severe flooding in 50 years and the water is rising in Bangkok. Emergency shelters in the capital and preparing to receive hundreds of thousands of people whose homes are underwater. More than 350 people have died in that disaster.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince has died. He was the half-brother of the Saudi king and one of the top political figures in the kingdom. He died early today in New York City at a hospital, reportedly of cancer.

And it is election weekend in Tunisia. Voters there will choose a national assembly when they go to the polls tomorrow. It's the first election in the Arab world since this year's wave of popular revolutions removed several regional leaders from power.

Which now also brings us to Libya. Moammar Gadhafi is dead, NATO is wrapping up operation, and the interim government is planning a democratic election. So what's next for this country and for the region for that matter? Let's go to London.

Professor Fawaz Gerges head the Middle East Unit at the London School of Economics, also the author of this book, "The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda." Professor, good to see you.

PROF. FAWAZ GERGES, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST CENTRE, LSE: The same here. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, so, first of all, who were the winners or the losers in what has just happened in Libya? And I'm talking about how it happened. Yes, we know that the NATO airstrikes in large part were hoping to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power, but is this what was envisioned?

GERGES: Well, I think -- I mean you're raising a big question. I think a cloud will likely overshadow tomorrow's announcements of liberation. How Gadhafi was killed, whether he was executed after he was captured, these are not academic questions. As you know, not just the United States and the United Nations have called for an investigation.

But I think it tells us about the post-Gadhafi Libya, the role of justice. It should not be tribal vengeance and summary justice like that of Iraq. The question of accountability, the Libyan people deserve to know even though Gadhafi as you well know brutalized Libya for many years and institute ad culture of fear, he governed by the sword and died by the sword. And I think we need to know that Libya, the post-Gadhafi Libya will not be ruled by tribal justice but a rule of law. This is a big, big challenge facing the new leadership of Libya, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And so how does the fall of Moammar Gadhafi and perhaps the shaping of a new country of Libya, how might that symbolize the whole Arab spring movement?

GERGES: Well, I think what we need to understand is that Gadhafi, you know, legacy really brutalized Libya. He destroyed the state itself as a set of institutions and replaced it with a cult personality. He basically squandered billions of dollars of resources. There are no institutions in Libya. He manipulated the tribal and regional rivalries.

And that's why the challenges in the new leadership are truly significant. They have to set up and set institutions from the bottom up, brick by brick. They have to mend the rifts that exist, the regional rifts between eastern Libya and western Libya, the tribal rifts between Benghazi and Misrata on the one hand and Sirte and Bani Walid. They also have to man the ideological differences between Islamists and nationalists also.

So the reality is the morning after the new leadership will face tremendous obstacles and challenges. And here let me be clear, there will be setbacks. The process will not be easy. There is no magical wand for Libya. I know in the last few days there has been a great celebration in Libya and outside of Libya, but the reality is that the challenges are tremendous.

WHITFIELD: And so how is the U.S. role being defined by way of NATO as it pertains to what's taken place here in Libya and now even with the U.S., it's recent announcement of pulling out of Iraq? How does this resonate in this region?

GERGES: I think to his credit, President Barack Obama has made all the right moves both in Iraq and in Libya. I think he made a pledge to the American people and to the Iraqi people that he will bring American troops home by the end of 2012, beginning 2013. We know that he, basically, he has carried out his pledge.

Also in Libya, unlike in contrast to his predecessor, President George W. Bush, he played it very safe. He kept his distance. He did not want to take ownership of the uprising in Libya. And I think we can say very safely that in both Iraq and Libya, his style of leadership contrasts very radically from that of President Bush, and I would say that he gains credit both at home and in Iraq and Libya for taking a very light approach to that part of the world.

WHITFIELD: Professor, thanks so much for joining us from London. Always good to hear from you.

GERGES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Actress Alfre Woodard co-founded Artists for a New South Africa. She's on a personal mission to end AIDS pandemic in Africa and help kids orphaned by the diseases. Here's today's impact your world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALFRE WOODARD, ARTISTS FOR NEW SOUTH AFRICA: Hi. I'm Alfre Woodard, and you can make an impact and change the lives of children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to work combat HIV/aids. We have about 3,500 right now AIDS orphans that we assist on an ongoing basis.

Keep turning towards flight. Keep holding on to each other.

Join the movement. Impact your world. Go to CNN.com/impact.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: To find out more about Artists for a New South Africa, go to impactyourworld.com.

Banking online, everybody does that. It's a growing trend across all demographics. We're talking about it next with an online banking solution provider.

But first, a question for you. Do you know how many people actually do bank online?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, how many of you are using online banking? According to a survey, more than 72.5 million households use their computers to pay bills, send money, and save cash.

It is the number one issue in American homes, getting your financial house in order. Today in our weekly financial fix we're talking about the dos and don'ts of online banking.

Joining us is now is Anil Arora, president and CEO of Yodlee, an online banking solution provider.

You say online banking provides a radar view of a person's life. Let's begin with the dos. You say do explore all that your bank has to offer online. In what way?

ANIL ARORA, CEO YODLEE: Exactly. Americans are really stressed when it comes to managing their personal finances. We need help. And banks do a great job of providing free online services that are convenient, that are easy to use, that are safe and secure. It pays to use some of these services such as checking your balances, checking your transactions, paying your bills online, or perhaps transferring funds between your accounts.

And more recently banks have introduced some really exciting new tools that allow to you track your spending, manage your budgets, plan for retirement.

WHITFIELD: OK, so there are lots of tools there. You know, so there really is no excuse as to not being able to manage your money because they are making it easy for you. So when you go online how do you find these locations? How do you make sure you're tapping in on all the things that are instructive for you?

ARORA: Most banks that have online websites. It's really interesting. When you go online you have many more tools than you would expect.

It's really interesting. The vast majority of Americans say they would like to budget. Very few of them actually do. And you ask, why? Why is that the case? It's because it's too cumbersome, too difficult.

And what my company Yodlee has done working with all of the major banks in the U.S. and worldwide is we simplify it. We make it really easy by allowing you to view all of your accounts in one place with one click. And then we allow you to see how you're spending with simple graphs and simple charts, and that enables you to set up simple budgets and track them.

WHITFIELD: There's some things you say do not know, because a lot of folks get nervous when they think about online banking. They think immediately I'll become a victim of identity theft. How do I make sure I can protect my information, my transactions, my transfer of monies, et cetera?

ARORA: That's an excellent point. One in 10 Americans is a victim of identity fraud. So, it pays to be proactive. It pays to go online. It pays to check your balances and look for irregular charges. And many banks offer identity protection services online as well.

WHITFIELD: OK, now, you say don't write a check ever again. Some folks still want to write a check in large part because, you know, maybe the institution you're working with or someone you're paying, you don't want to do a bank transfer. Why do you say eliminate checks forever?

ARORA: Well, Americans write billions of checks annually. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of effort and many, many stamps as you might imagine. Banks allow you to pay anyone any time anywhere for free. So it pays to go online and save time and save money and save effort by paying whoever you want to whether it's a bill or a person online.

WHITFIELD: OK, Anil Arora, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate that and we'll try to be safer and smarter about our money.

ARORA: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: Next week the earth's population will reach seven billion. While babies are born worldwide every five seconds the birth rate in the U.S. is actually going down. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more in this week's "Health for Her."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Any parent can tell you that kids can be expensive. And as the economy has gotten worse, people are choosing to have fewer children. If you compare 2007 when the economy was doing well with 2010, we're talking about 300,000 fewer children.

Take a look at this graph and you can see the correlation. On the far left, since 2002 until 2007, things were going pretty well and that number is going up, up, up. People were choosing to have more children. It hit its peak in 2007 with the highest birth rate in that time period and then it's been coming down ever since.

And here's exactly how expensive children can be. It costs between $8,000 and $20,000 to raise a child, depending on, well, how fancy the clothes are, whether they go to private or public school, all of that. And if you look at the numbers this way, from birth to 18 the cost of raising a child is between $206,000 and $477,000, with housing, food and child care being the biggest expenses.

Now, it seems that a lot of women are saying, we're going to delay this or we're not going to have a child right now. That makes a lot of sense for a lot of families. But also remember, if you think all of us have children when we have more money in our bank account, that could be a little problematic. You may be so old that you need fertility treatments, and that can cost a lot of money. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks, Elizabeth. From horror movies to humor, here's a new selection of movies at your local theater tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's even the odds.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: "The Three Musketeers" make a return to the big screen. What does our movie critic think of this remake? Grae Drake's grade later this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Our top stories.

The Occupy Wall Street protester who climbed a 70-foot high sculpture finally came down, carefully. Early the protester who is from Canada promised he would stay put until New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg resigned. Bloomberg is still in office, and when the protester did climb down police immediately arrested him.

Officials at the New Hampshire food bank say feeding hungry families this holiday season will be hard. They are running a shortage on turkeys and other food items. The food bank's executive director says their normal sources for food and cash donations have dried up.

President Obama announced this week that the remaining 39,000 American troops will be coming home from Iraq soon, but that decision doesn't come without controversy. Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence is here to tell us why withdrawing from Iraq comes with some pitfalls.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Fred, there are some important reasons why the president had to make this decision, but it does come with some real risks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: Some 39,000 American troops are still spread out over 18 bases in Iraq. And they've all got 10 weeks to get out.

OBAMA: Today I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays.

LAWRENCE: The U.S. military is running up to 400 transportation convoys a week and has moved out more than 1.5 million pieces of equipment.

It was President Bush who signed an agreement with Iraq to remove all American troops by the end of this year. Obama made it a campaign promise when he ran for president. And one of his potential opponents for reelection questioned, quote, "whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the government." Those negotiations broke down because Iraq would not extend legal protection to American troops.

DENIS MCDONOUGH, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The decision, and the president will insist on our troops having what they need no matter where they are.

LAWRENCE: A Pentagon official said American troops are sometimes prosecuted in local courts where there's an established legal system, like Germany or Japan. But they would not want American troops tried in Iraqi courts under Iraqi law. Current and former Pentagon officials have been raising alarms about Iran's growing power in Iraq.

ROBERT GATES, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I'm worried about Iranian influence.

LAWRENCE: And now with absence of American troops, the U.S. will have to find other ways to blunt Iran's influence.

OBAMA: As I told Prime Minister Maliki, we will continue discussions on how we might help Iraq train and equip its forces.

LAWRENCE: The U.S. military won't have a standing presence in Iraq. But a senior defense official tells CNN the Pentagon is not backing away from a relationship with the Iraqi military. He says they can invite new Iraqi officers to American war colleges to combine training missions in a third host country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now, there will be a small number of American troops left in Iraq, about 150. But they will be working under the U.S. embassy and its protection. Also staying in Iraq, American diplomats and nearly 10,000 private contractors. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Chris.

The U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq has had an immediate impact on Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reacting. CNN's Fareed Zakaria scored an exclusive interview with him in Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama has said that all American troops will be out of Iraq by the end the year. In light of this announcement will your government increase its efforts to train the Iraqi army since there will be a need in Iraq for training and support. will the Iranian government be providing greater support in that area?

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, PRESIDENT OF IRAN: I think we should have done it sooner, maybe seven or eight years ago, and they could avoid killing so many Iraqi people or Americans as well. I think they should have done it much earlier. But the people and the Iraqi government did not accept the increased presence of the Americans. The Iraqi government is independent and sovereign. They should decide how to provide training for their military personnel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: You can see more of Fareed Zakaria's interview with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tomorrow morning 10:00 a.m. eastern time.

Iranian-Americans from around the country are gathering actually in front of the White House this afternoon. They turned out to urge a regime change in Iran and show support for the U.S. government's uncovering of a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., that plot linking that planned assassination with the Iranian government.

CNN iReporters are out early to see this weekend's new movie releases, and here's what Brett Martin thinks about the movie "Paranormal 3."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The long wait for something happen in silence dragged the film down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: OK. Movie critic, Grae Drake, she's going to be weighing in as well. You don't want to miss her review next.

But first, do you know what's the top haunted hotel in the U.S.? is it the Queen Mary, Stanley Hotel, Hawthorne Hotel, or Bourbon Orleans? The answer right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Before the break we asked you what is the top haunted hotel in the U.S.? According to Travelocity, if you answered b, the Stanley Hotel in Colorado then you are correct. This is the hotel where author Steven King stayed apparently when he came up with the thriller book "The Shining" before it became a very frightening movie. There have been reports of phantom piano players, ghostly guests, and even thieving spirits. You don't want to stay there if you're weak in the knees.

All right, so it's Saturday and you're thinking of heading to a theater. Maybe you want to take in a little thriller or something. Our movie critic Grae Drake from Fandango and Movies.com is with us today. Good to see you. Halloween, oh, my gosh, it's a week or so away. So people really get excited about seeing some kind of thriller, scary stuff. We'll begin with "Paranormal Activity 3." Let's take a quick peek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Christie, I saw you talking to somebody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. He's my friend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't see him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's standing right next to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honey, he's not there.

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Nope, I will not be seeing that. But this is about two little sisters who, I don't know, I guess sense or feel or discover that there's another being that is in the house. So, Grae, do you like that kind of thing?

GRAE DRAKE, MOVIE CRITIC, MOVIES.COM: Listen, I thought that my home videos of my great aunt Millicent doing the Lambada were scary. No. This movie delivers way more scares than the second one.

And the thing about it is the series is liked or disliked for the exact same reasons. Long static shots, kind of slow, but then it blind sides you out of nowhere. And this movie takes that to a whole new level. I loved it.

WHITFIELD: You kill me.

DRAKE: Yes. You and I will go to the theater and I will be a rock because --

WHITFIELD: you will hear nothing and may not even see anything because I'll be the loudest one in the theater, and then arms may be flailing so you won't see anything. You don't want to see a scary movie with me, because I'll ruin it for you.

DRAKE: This movie has an ending that made me say "What?" in the theater really loud. It's just fantastic. This movie I think makes this series one of the strongest trilogies of all time, like right up there with "Lord of the Rings" and "Toy Story". They have so much to say about one subject. I just love it.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: You gave it a fabu grade.

DRAKE: I did. "Casper the Friendly Ghost" this ain't. So I have it an A.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about "The Three Musketeers," a remake. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 2:00 I'd say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look out of the window.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They weren't decoys. I was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: OK. So in the spirit of Halloween, a little dress up in this movie. How about that? Is that enough to hold our attention?

DRAKE: Well, I would rather spend the next two minutes talking about "The Three Musketeers" candy bar than this movie. But, yes, you know what? One thing you're not is going hear me say again is that Charlie Sheen did it better.

WHITFIELD: Really?

DRAKE: This remake -- yes. You know what the older versions of this movie had more pizzazz and more masculine and surprising and everything the Musketeers should be. This one was passive and had some good fight scenes and a good climax with Goodyear blimps warring and on fire. They forgot a script, I think.

WHITFIELD: Really?

DRAKE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: It had the feeling of kind of ad lib qualities. No common thread?

DRAKE: I mean it did have a thread because Paul Anderson makes movies that are pretty to watch and he's not like a total rube. But it just wasn't exciting or as dashing and debonair and wonderful as "The Three Musketeers" ought to be. They focused too much on Mila Jovovich character, and aside for her running a lot in slow motion, this movie doesn't deliver anything else. Some good fighting, but I also don't think it really did a lot of justice in 3-D. so you can save your money. I gave it a C-minus.

WHITFIELD: That's below average. You have me on the whole Charlie Sheen thing. He was in a "The Three Musketeers" flick?

DRAKE: Oh, was he, along with Keefer Sutherland. I looked back at it and I went no it's a better movie. Even the Gene Kelly version is better than this.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: The makers of that movie will be happy to get that plug. The makers of this most recent maybe one not so much. All right, Grae Drake, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Of course, remember, you can get all of Grae's movie grades at Fandango and Movies.com.

Coming up, a deer struggling -- oh, my gosh, that's hard to watch -- struggling for hours to free himself. There's good news at the end, and we'll tell you what a game warden actually did to try to save that buck.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK. This video is hard to watch. I'm sorry, it really is. But there is a happy ending. You see this buck got stuck with this rope tangled up on the antlers. Well, it struggled apparently for about five hours before a ranger such as that gentleman came along, shot it with a tranquilizer gun. They did cut the antlers. Apparently they do grow back.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And there's a weather angle. When there's a lot of snow on the ground the deer uses the antlers to move snow to get the food they want.

WHITFIELD: That's incredible. They essentially restricted its means of getting food?

STEELE: And a babe. Women are attracted during the mating season.

WHITFIELD: Apparently they did cut the antlers because they are appealing for hunters.

(WEATHER BREAK)

WHITFIELD: After a career spent covering stories from all over the world, a journalist and a CNN executive tackles one very close home to. It's the story of his own family. CNN's managing editor Mark Whitaker talks about all of that in his family memoir, "My Long Trip Home."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's time for our CNN Equals Politics update. We're keeping an eye on all the latest headlines at CNNpolitics.com desk. And here's what's crossing right now.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is spending all day in Iowa, the first in the nation caucus state. At this hour he's speaking at a family farm in the town of Wilton. He started the day hunting for pheasants with Iowa Congressman Steve King, and tonight he attends the conservative Faith and Freedom Forum in Des Moines along with other GOP candidates.

Skipping that event, however, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney. Instead he visited his campaign headquarters and the first in the nation primary state of New Hampshire. The former Massachusetts governor will officially file for that ballot on Monday.

And a potential presidential contender in 2016, Vice President Joe Biden. The former presidential candidate said right now he's focused on getting President Obama reelected. But Biden suggested to CNN's Candy Crowley he may launch his own bid down the road. Catch our exclusive interview with the vice president on "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern.

And for the latest political news you know exactly where to go, CNN politics.com

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: He's an accomplished journalist rising to the rank of top executive at "Newsweek," NBC News, and now managing editor at CNN Worldwide. Mark Whitaker's curiosity with his own family became the subject of a family memoir on bookstands now. He tells me about this amazing story of his parents, an interracial couple who fell in love in the '50s. And he talks about how their relationship, the family's life all had a profound impact on who he is today. I spoke with Whitaker about his long trip home.

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WHITFIELD: You're very accomplished scholar journalist. And then you get to this point where you say you know what? I'm not going write about that. I'm going to write about something very intimate, very personal. What was that, I guess, evolution of thinking?

MARK WHITAKER, AUTHOR, "MY LONG TRIP HOME": I had thrown myself into my work for 30 years as a journalist partly to get away from my childhood and my upbringing and a lot of the pain that had been involved. But when I finally decided that I was ready to write the story, it was, I think, my training as a journalist that first of all allowed me to report the story, but also gave me a little bit of the emotional detachment that I need to put it in perspective as I went along.

WHITFIELD: The relationship with your father was one that you struggled with for a good part of your life.

WHITAKER: It's interesting, because when people who over the years had heard about my story said you should write a book one day, they knew sort of the romantic parts. So my parents were an interracial couple that met in the 1950s. It was illegal in most states in the country at that time. My father was a student, an undergraduate. My mother was his teacher. So, you know, it was illicit in that sense too, a teacher-student relationship. So they had to keep the relationship secret for a couple of years before they married.

WHITFIELD: So, you were real conflicted too, weren't you, because you write your dad was very charismatic, you adored him, at the same time he was at the root of depression four.

WHITAKER: I had for better or worse a 50 year relationship with my father. Through a lot of twists and turns and ups and downs you see in the book.

And part of the story is the evolution of my feelings towards my father, worshipped as a young child, depression when I was separated from him, incredible clashes we had when I was a teenager and his life was falling apart, a kind of gradual getting after he finally stopped drinking we gradually got on better terms. But I was very prideful, I was establishing my own career and my own family. I didn't need his help.

WHITFIELD: Writing this was a personal journey for you too, trying to piece this relationship together. When you decided to write this it really came as a result of the death of your dad.

WHITAKER: That's right. He died two days after Thanksgiving, 2008, at 2:30 in the morning. I know this because the next morning I had a voice mail from his which, to his third wife who was with him, stamped 2:30 in the morning saying he had passed away. And I thought, you know, not only is he gone, at that point I thought if I had ever thought about writing about him, you know, that's over. I can't talk to him and so forth.

A year later, two days after Thanksgiving, 2009 I woke up at 3:00 in the morning, almost to the hour and I said, I said that I want to try to write the story now.

WHITFIELD: What pieces did you want to get down?

WHITAKER: It's interesting, because at first I thought I would write the story from memory like a traditional memoir. And I literally at that point got out of bed and started writing down my memories on a laptop computer.

I wrote that for several weeks. Then, I realized there's a lot of things I don't know or things I heard or might know but I don't know for sure. So I said, I got to report this story.

So, at that point, I started calling everybody who was still alive, who had lived through the events. My mother --

WHITFIELD: They were into sharing?

WHITAKER: They were. But what was interesting is their first response, almost every person, was, well, I just don't remember that much. It was king of painful, I've forgotten a lot. I said, let me come and talk to you.

Then, one after another, it would go on for hours. I would fill notebooks. Once I got them talking, they remembered a tremendous amount. Then I would ask them for letters and documents.

WHITFIELD: Do you feel like it's lifted a burden to written all of this down? To discover, to reach out to family members in a way that your reporter instincts had you do?

WHITAKER: Traditionally, people say to understand is to forgive. I point out that sometimes you have to forgive before you can understand. There was a certain amount of forgiveness that had to take place before I embarked on my journey.

WHITFIELD: "My Long Trip Home." You came up with this title. It has a couple of meanings.

WHITAKER: The first meaning is, I took a lot of trips as a young child. There were news homes where I didn't know anybody or anyone around.

The second meaning, obviously, is that the reporting of this book and the writing of this book was a long trip, a journalistic and emotional trip.

WHITFIELD: Mark Whitaker, thank you.

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