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Isaac Heads Toward Gulf Coast; Romney Recalls Brush with Death; Earthquake "Swarm" Hits S. California; Tampa, GOP Worry Less About Isaac; Snooki's New Role -- Mom; Isaac could Drive up Gas Prices

Aired August 27, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Soledad.

Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, eyes on Isaac. A monster storm gaining strength in the Gulf. New evacuations in Alabama happening right now. Isaac taking virtually the same path as Katrina.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Brooke Baldwin live in a currently rain-free Tampa, Florida. We're watching now that the RNC has been condensed to three days, how does that change things, and how does Mitt Romney maximize his message. That's coming up.

COSTELLO: California rattled. They're calling it a swarm of earthquakes. Hundreds of earthquakes striking the California/Mexico border. A seismologist telling CNN she expects -- she expects thousands of events just like this for the rest of the week.

Deadly photo-op. A backpacker and photographer taking pictures of a grizzly bear in the Denali National Forest in Alaska killed in a rare attack. Parts of the park closed today as we're learning more about the hiker from San Diego.

And making history, the youngest champ ever at the LPGA Canadian Open. This hour we'll introduce you to 15-year-old Lydia Coe. She's making headlines this Monday morning.

NEWSROOM begins right now.

And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining us on this Monday morning. We begin on the Gulf Coast. Massive evacuations are getting under way all the way from Louisiana to Alabama. Tropical Storm Isaac heading in that direction. It blew through the Florida Keys yesterday as a blustery rainmaker and only a hint of what it could become.

It's now in the open waters of the Gulf, it's gaining strength, but here is something more ominous. Take a look at Isaac's projected path and the meandering line underneath. That is Hurricane Katrina. It struck New Orleans seven years ago this week. And as you can see where the paths intersect, the city is once again in the crosshairs.

This morning we've heard stern warnings from the man who coordinated the military's relief efforts in the wake of Katrina. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): People need to be cautious because anything built by a man can be destroyed by Mother Nature. People still need to listen to the local officials, and if you're outside the levee system you need to be evacuated today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano begins our coverage. He's in New Orleans this morning.

So, Rob, how seriously are people taking this threat?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Very seriously. You know, when we got in yesterday and the forecast it'd be one or two, and you would think the storm hardened folks of southeast Louisiana would, you know, turn their nose up at it but, no, there's certainly some anxiety here. And every gas station that we passed, a long line, many of them already don't have any gasoline.

So locals here are certainly taking it seriously and as the stern words from General Honore came, you know, anything built by man can be destroyed by Mother Nature. That's in the back of everybody's heads as well.

Behind me is something that was built by a man. An impressive structure that was not here seven years ago when Katrina came through. This is one of the many ramping up of structures that the Army Corps has undergone here. They've spent $11 billion in this city and that's some piping that could pump out water from the city. That's a floodgate that can dropped when the storm surged, if it comes in, begins to bang water from Lake Pontchartrain up there.

So this is the 17th Street Canal, one of the many horrific images that you may recall when that levee broke. They scramble d to get the helicopters in here to drop sandbags. Well, more than just sandbags now on either side of this canal, on the other canals that were threatened as well. So some level of confidence as far as that is concerned and because of that there are no mandatory evacuations here in the city.

There are some people that are leaving and certainly outside of the levees, the 140 miles of beefed up levees around the city, if you live outside of that notably in Plaquemines and some parts of St. Charles Parish, there are already mandatory evacuations.

And as you mentioned The track eerily similar to Katrina. The good news is that the strength at least right now nowhere near where Katrina was at this time seven years ago. Still struggling to get this thing to hurricane strength and the longer it takes, the better off we are because it will eventually run out of real estate and that's being the Gulf of Mexico. But it looks like it's heading in this direction just under 40 miles from southeast of New Orleans and people here are certainly taking it seriously -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, let's hope it continues to struggle. Rob Marciano live in New Orleans for us this morning.

Let's head over to the weather center now and check in with Bonnie Schneider.

There are also evacuations under way in Alabama. Tell us how the storm is going to affect that state.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Alabama, Mississippi, Carol, we're watching all of these states along the Gulf Coast because we don't know exactly where Isaac will strike and, remember, it's a large storm so even if it strikes one state and is close to another state, I think everyone will be impacted. Florida certainly is right now. We just had a tornado watch expire for that state and we're still getting some very heavy thunderstorms.

The last advisory as of 8:00 this morning says that Isaac is becoming better organized. Those are the words from the National Hurricane Center but as Rob Marciano reported that if we can keep the storm a little bit more disorganized for a longer period of time we are likely to see it come in as a category 1 or maybe stay as a tropical storm.

Unfortunately, though, it doesn't look like we're going to keep that intensity down. Looking at the track you can see it's forecast to come onshore along the Gulf Coast, possibly in Louisiana as a category 1 storm right now with winds at 90 miles per hour and that's likely to occur some time really early on Wednesday morning. Then the storm comes further onshore and brings more of a rainmaking event Thursday and Friday across parts of the mid-south so that's something to monitor as well.

Currently we have hurricane warnings up for Morgan City all the way to Destin, Florida. So still under a hurricane warning. If you have major storm preps in this area, by that I mean providing yourself and your family with enough food and water for three days, for everybody at home, now would be the time to do it because, you know, it's interesting, even if we get a category 1 storm, a lot of people think well, that's not so bad.

A category 1 storm certainly can topple down shallow rooted trees as well as power lines so power outages are almost likely when you have a storm like this. We're looking at heavy rain and frequent lightning really sliding across Florida right now as we zoom into the Tampa area, we're still getting some very heavy rain in the region to the north of Tampa and some of the suburbs there but some breaks, really a better situation than it could have been for the area.

Heavier rain actually along the east coast of Florida. You're seeing some of that near Okeechobee, and again frequent lightning strikes with the system.

Take a look at the forecast models and the track is getting a little bit more -- more of a consensus with the models. You can see many of the models taking it right over New Orleans. So ironic to to happen on Wednesday, the seven-year anniversary of Katrina. But as we've been pointing out all morning long, when you look at the path and the direction comparing the two, this is the 5:00 advisory from yesterday compared to Katrina, side-by-side, well, it looks very similar in terms of track. Luckily it is no where near as similar in terms of intensity and in terms of size so eerily similar but luckily not as intense. Thank goodness -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Let's hope it stays that way because you never know.

Bonnie Schneider, thanks so much.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

COSTELLO: Tropical Storm Isaac mostly missed Tampa and the Republican National Convention but it's being felt in so many other ways and here is one. Delegates from Louisiana are holding a special breakfast meeting right now to discuss the storm and its potential threat back home. Right now there's no talk of leaving the convention and heading home early. But of course that could can change after the path of the storm becomes more clear.

Also this week Republican strategists want to chip away at Romney's rather aloof image and show a more personal side.

CNN viewers got a sneak peek last night and we want to share one unguarded moment.

CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger asks Romney about his teenaged missionary trip to France and a fatal car accident that he nearly died in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: When you were there, you almost died on the side of a road in Bordeaux. You were hit by a drunk driver. Do you remember that accident?

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know I remember very distinctly driving up until the point of the accident. I don't recall precisely what happened at the accident. I guess that's not terribly unusual as I was knocked unconscious, and only recalled waking up for a brief moment in the ambulance going to the hospital and then again was unconscious, and then woke up some time later in the hospital.

But we were hit. The person sitting next to me died. And others were severely injured. My injuries were not as severe as some might have thought. The policeman on the scene apparently thought I was in worse condition than I was and wrote in French, "he is dead," on my passport to distinguish me from others.

That made it back to the United States in a press report that I had been killed in an accident in France. My parents heard this through the media, as did Ann.

BORGER: Does he talk about that as formative or -- because he then went -- you know, ran the mission. I mean he then -- ANN ROMNEY, MITT ROMNEY'S WIFE: Well, it was traumatic for him because the woman -- he was driving, and the woman sitting next to him was killed.

BORGER: Right.

A. ROMNEY: And the man sitting on the passenger's seat was very, very seriously injured. Now Mitt was wedged and the steering wheel turned and wedged and went into the woman sitting next to him and he was thrown out of the car. And so you realized how close your brush with death was. And again it's just of course has to have an impact on you, which it did for Mitt. and went into the woman sitting next to him and he was thrown out of the car. And so you recall how close your brush of death was and it has to have an impact on you, which it did for mitt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Brooke Baldwin is at the Republican National Convention.

And good morning, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Good morning, Carol. It's nice to be here. And let me tell you, I did sort of sneak over my right shoulder and I do see a little blue sky but on the note of likability, I think that's really huge as we look to the now three days, no longer four here, the Republican National Convention. And you know, when you -- when you hear from some of the senior Romney advisers, they really say two things as part of maximizing Mitt Romney's message, right?

So you have number one, portraying him really as this compassionate family man. We were supposed to be hearing from his wife that the hopeful future first lady tonight and now that we know today really isn't happening, we'll look for her tonight and, of course, Ann Romney portraying him as a loving husband and, also, looking to really portray Mitt Romney as a successful businessman.

I will tell you, Carol, that today at 2:00 Eastern time the chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus will be, you know, gaveling this convention, officially opening it for a matter of minutes. And you know what they'll be doing? They're actually going to be kicking off the national debt clock, so on the economy, being issue number one, they're going to be ticking that debt through the next four days, sort of part of that Republican message saying, take a look at the nation and the out-of-control spending.

So two big themes here to watch for, Carol, in the next couple of days.

COSTELLO: Brooke Baldwin reporting live from Tampa, Florida, for us today. Thank you so much. We'll get back to you in the next two hours of "NEWSROOM."

The 2012 political season is marking the end of an era. President Obama plans to go full speed ahead with campaigning this week as Republicans convene in Tampa for their national convention.

It's been the custom in years past for the opposing candidate to lie low but that's certainly not the case this year for either Obama or Romney. They're both breaking with tradition to campaign during the other party's big week. Obama is also out with a movie themed ad criticizing Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His only hope is a convention reinvention. And an Etch-a-Sketch of epic proportions will be shaken to its core.

M. ROMNEY: I'm running for office, for Pete's sake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On August 30th, Mitt Romney stars in "The Do- Over." Critics have called his previous work wildly misleading, four Pinocchios, pants on fire.

Rated N for not going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's on YouTube. It's already gotten more than 200,000 hits. Mr. Obama will kick off a two-day, three-state tour of swing states tomorrow as the Republicans' big day begins and of course the Democratic National Convention will come along shortly. We'll see what the Republicans put out.

Among those tapped to speak at next week's Democratic National Convention, former Florida Republicans governor, Charlie Crist. Crist endorsed Obama for a president -- for president, rather, but one well respected Florida GOP strategist called Crist, quote, "The silly putty of Florida politics who will bend and twist whatever direction you want." End quote.

California is known for its earthquakes but what about 300 in one day?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, it's called an earthquake swarm. I'm Casey Wian in Brawley, California. And we're in the middle of the biggest earthquake swarm Southern California has experienced since the 1970s. We'll have all the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A mild earthquake in California is nothing new, but what about hundreds and hundreds in one day? Experts say a swarm of quakes near San Diego could last for several days. Sunday, about 300 struck near the California/Mexico border, more than 30 had a magnitude of more than 3.5. The strongest was 5. No one was hurt.

Casey Wian joins me live from Brawley, California. I have never heard of this, a swarm of tornadoes.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, a swarm of earthquakes, Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm sorry. Not a swarm of tornadoes.

WIAN: Very understandable with all the weather news going on in another part of the country that you could get that mixed up a little bit. But here we are experiencing a swarm of earthquakes. We're in Brawley, California, which is about 200 miles southeast of Los Angeles, 120 miles due east to San Diego, near the Mexican border. Very agricultural community.

As you mentioned, in the last 24 hours, we have had 300 -- more than 300 earthquakes, two of them have been fairly strong, over magnitude five.

You can look at the typical types of damage they are experiencing in this city. Here is a drugstore. You can see many of the items have been knocked off the shelves here. Obviously, the owners of the business haven't been able to come in to clean things up yet. That process is beginning this morning.

Obviously, even though this region is somewhat accustomed to earthquakes, nerves are still very much frayed. One local family, the Cerda family, had their camera rolling when one of their larger quakes hit yesterday afternoon. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIAN: Clearly, a scary experience for that family and for those children, the parents tell us that last night their two youngest children had a very, very difficult time getting to sleep. Also, today was supposed to be the first day of high school here in Brawley, California, but the school has been closed, inspect the buildings just to make sure there's no damage.

Also the local hospital, the nonemergency room portion of the hospital has been closed as well temporarily. The big question, of course, on everyone's mind here, is this a precursor to a much bigger quake?

COSTELLO: Well, that is the big question and --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GRAVES, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: The activity that we're seeing is possible that this will continue on for a number of hours, even several days. This has happened in the past. We don't necessarily expect larger events but that certainly is a possibility at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIAN: And as we mentioned, Carol, this is something that's not all that uncommon in this area, but geologists and seismologists do say this is the most intense earthquake swarm, that this area has experienced since the 1970s -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's really scary. Casey Wian, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

It's 19 minutes past the hour.

Checking our top stories now.

Thousands of people in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are evacuating ahead of tropical storm Isaac. It's expected to become a hurricane and make landfall Tuesday or Wednesday, seven years to the day after hurricane Katrina, Isaac's round is almost identical to that of Katrina.

South Carolina officials head 20 federal court today to defend a new voter identification law. The government blocked it last year, calling it discriminatory. Proponents say it would help prevent voter fraud and help update their voting records.

In money news, Samsung electronics loses $12 billion in market value in early trading. Investors are reacting for the first time after the company lost a patent dispute with Apple. Samsung plans to appeal the decision awarding Apple $1 billion.

Back to our top story now, the Republican National Convention has a simple goal: showcase Mitt Romney as the best man to lead the United States for the next four years. The Obama campaign has a different idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: On August 30th, Mitt Romney stars in "the do-over." Critics have called his previous work "wildly misleading," "four Pinocchios," "pants on fire."

Rated N for not going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Former Republican Congressman Tom Davis of Virginia joins me from Tampa.

Good morning, Congressman.

REP. TOM DAVIS (R-VA), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, I'm sure you heard part of that ad. Does it bug you at all that the Democrats released that on the Sunday before the convention was to begin?

DAVIS: You know, really it's not surprising. They've got nothing to talk about.

They've had four years of bad outcomes, sustained unemployment, huge deficits. Things haven't just gone well for them in terms of what their policies have produced. So I think we're seeing a negative campaign very early trying to say we may not be good but they're worse.

COSTELLO: Is it tradition for the other side to lay of while the other side lays out their platform and introduces themselves to the public?

DAVIS: Well, it used to be. The president gets his convention next week. But with the 24/7 news cycle and with polls showing the president in big trouble it I think they feel they cannot take a chance and they just have to try to define Mitt Romney and go negative from the start and not give him his day in the sunshine and allow him to get traction.

So, that's really what this is all about is controlling the news cycle, the news cycle.

COSTELLO: Yesterday, the former Florida governor, Charlie Crist, who was a Republican and then he switched to independent. He came out, though, and he endorsed President Barack Obama. He'll speak at next week's Democratic National Convention.

How do you feel about that?

DAVIS: Well, I mean, look, it's very personal with him. Could not have run for the Senate, ran as an independent and I think this will complete his transformation. So, I think he's going to try to resurrect his career as a Democrat and try to comeback here in Florida. So, it's not surprising.

But if you watched Chris' personal journey, that's the direction he's been going since the primary electorate gave him a thumbs down and he switched to run as an independent last time for the Senate.

COSTELLO: Doesn't it look bad for a former Republican to be speaking at the Democratic National Convention?

DAVIS: Not really. I mean, we have Artur Davis, Harvard law school classmate of the president. He's African-American, Democratic congressman from Alabama, speaking at ours.

But in Crist's case, I think it's intensely personal. He feels the party rejected him. If he wants to resurrect his career, it's not going to be as a Republican. So I think this completes the journey for him to political viability. I think everybody will understand this is sour grapes. This is not anything else.

COSTELLO: Some Republicans worry that the Republican Party will come off even more conservative during -- over the course of the next three days. I mean, even the former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle came out. You might call him the Paul Ryan of his town. I mean, he was Mr. Murphy Brown according to the Democrats.

He told "The New York Times," this is from Dan Quayle, quote, "The philosophy you hear from time to time, which is unfortunate, is one of exclusion rather than inclusion. You have to be expanding the base, expanding the party, because compared to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party is a minority party."

This is from Dan Quayle who was considered ultra conservative.

DAVIS: Right. I think it's a pretty big party. It's a coalition. People who are upset with the policies of the Obama administration --

COSTELLO: Yes, but that's not what the polls show, though.

DAVIS: It's a very wide net. You can talk about ethnically how it's made up. It's one interest group stacked on another interest group.

COSTELLO: Women?

DAVIS: But the party has got pretty broad support. We have a lot of women. We have lot of women in Congress. We've got women committee chairmen. We have women.

COSTELLO: Congressman, the gender gap is humongous between Romney and Obama. Obama is on the winning side.

DAVIS: It is. With women he is. With men he's on the wrong side. And let's see how this ends up at the end of the day.

Part of the Democratic narrative is to say tat Republicans are somehow anti-women. I don't think so. Women have suffered more under the economic policies of this president than almost any other group.

So, let's wait and let this play and let's give Governor Romney his day. I think there's been traditionally a gender gap over the last two decades, but it worked both ways. Republicans are still winning elections and control both houses of Congress and I think it's going to be fine this year.

COSTELLO: Congressman, thank you for joining thus morning. We appreciate it.

DAVIS: Carol, thanks.

COSTELLO: California man who lived with the Taliban is heading to court. We'll tell you why John Walker Lindh, remember him? Well, he's suing the warden in his Indiana prison. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTESLLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning -- what do the political conventions mean to you? What do the political conventions mean to you? They're here. The 2012 political conventions, that is.

But will anybody watch them? Are they really history in the making or just carefully crafted infomercials?

Veteran political analyst Larry Sabato says the conventions have become just cheering sessions for the partisans. The public is turned of and tuning out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Look, even though they're I infomercials, Carol, they do present the basic platform. You get a sense of the candidates. You get a sense of what they're like, what their values are. You know what the parties stand for. So, they are important educational moments. >

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Educational, perhaps. But where's the drama? We know who the vice presidential candidate is. We know what the GOP platform is.

Still, this is Romney's chance to present himself to voters in a way we haven't seen him before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: We have to tell the Mitt Romney story here next week, telling the story about a man that's decent, honorable, gave away his father's inheritance, started something from nothing and created a great business, five good boys, saved the Olympics, governed in a difficult state as a Republican. And he was very successful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And to tell that story, Republicans are pulling out all the stops. According to "The New York Times," they hired veteran network and Broadway producers to ramp up the look and feel for entertainment, performances by Journey and Kid Rock, making this a very different kind of Republican convention -- a hipper, more fun convention if, of course, Isaac doesn't play complete spoiler.

So, the talkback question for you this morning: what do the political conventions mean to you? Facebook.com/CarolCNN, Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Your comments later this hour.

And good morning. It is 30 minutes past the hour. I'm Carol Costello.

We're watching the opening bell on Wall Street, where U.S. stocks are set to open higher this morning. Investors are focused on possible stimulus moves by the Feds. The Fed chairman Ben Bernanke expected to make a speech later this week in Wyoming.

An Afghan soldier guns down two NATO troops today in another so- called "green on blue" attack. This one happened in eastern Afghanistan. The death raised the number of troops killed in such attacks to at least 42.

Alaska's Denali national park reports its first fatal bear mauling. Park Service says the hiker from San Diego was taking pictures about 50 yards away from the bear when the bear attacked. Hiker are supposed to stay a quarter mile away from those bears. The grizzly was put down by park personnel.

The man sentence for aiding the Taliban heads to the federal court in Indianapolis today. John Walker Lindh accuses his warden of restricting Muslim prayer. He says that violates the religious freedom restoration act. Thousands of residents in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are evacuating ahead of tropical storm Isaac. It's expected to become a hurricane and make landfall Tuesday or Wednesday. That's seven years after hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Isaac's route is almost identical to Katrina.

Tampa, Florida, dodged a direct hit by Isaac as you know, and Republicans delayed the start of the national convention. The question now: will they make other changes with Isaac threatening the northern Gulf Coast?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Thirty-five minutes past the hour.

Republicans will keep a watchful eye on Isaac as they prepare to celebrate Mitt Romney's nomination. But it's quite the conundrum. Isaac just nicked Tampa.

But if Isaac hits Alabama or Louisiana, it will not only kill the party atmosphere in Tampa, it would overshadow the Republican convention.

Senator John McCain, whose convention was shortened by hurricane Gustav, told NBC's "Meet the Press" losing too much of the convention could hurt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: It's not that we don't want that first night but I don't think it will be damaging to lose the first night. But it could be harmful if we lose more than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Let's bring in Will Cain and L.Z. Granderson. He leans left. Will leans right.

Welcome, gentlemen.

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning, Carol.

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.

So maybe the biggest problem Republicans will have is optics. You can't have Kid Rock tearing down the house while Isaac tears down houses. So, Will, what do you do?

CAIN: I suggest I though it all when I come on TV and talk with you, but I don't know about this question. How do you handle what is an emerging crisis, real natural disaster, with what you hope is this celebratory event of nominating Mitt Romney's Republican nominee for president. I don't know how you do that.

The best I can tell you is this: you have to adopt your message into one that really is a mark of leadership and that is compassion, that this party, hopefully this leader is going to be on who can bring people together. And the speeches that follow each night should adopt that message, one that's here to help people out, that could even take the form, Carol, of some specific things such as, you know, raising money, becoming charitable.

I don't know if you do a telethon but you could take this event and make it something that is helpful for what's going to happen further up the Coast.

COSTELLO: And, L.Z., there's a specter hanging over this if, of course, Isaac hits New Orleans is George W. Bush and how his administration handled Katrina. Don't Republicans have to be extra careful?

GRANDERSON: I don't think so because, obviously, you know the president is different. So, that's very key in terms of how he will be perceived as far as the hurricane and being sensitive towards people who are less fortunate as well as minorities so I don't think they need to be careful about that.

I think they just need to be careful about the optics in terms of who their nominee is, which is Mitt Romney who seems to be the antithesis of everything Will just talked about, being compassionate, caring about people, caring about person, everything leading up from his taxes to Bain Capital to the Akin comments to the fact that Ron Paul wanting to fully endorse him, everything is saying bad things about him and his party really to his speech. And so that's the worse optics, much more than any damage done by hurricane Katrina, how President Obama handles it.

COSTELLO: OK. So, one person, Will, who will not there thanks to Isaac is Donald Trump . He was due to do some sort of publicity stunt on the convention floor on Monday. The Republicans have not rescheduled him.

Do you think that's a good thing he won't be part of the Republican national convention? This is according to "The Washington Post," we should ad.

CAIN: Yes. Yes.

COSTELLO: That's all you're going to say is yes?

CAIN: I think it deserves a short and direct answer. Yes. It's a good thing Donald Trump will not be a part of the message the Republicans are putting out. He's a distraction from every serious conversation we have that we need to be debating and deciding. And Donald Trump should not be part of the conversation.

COSTELLO: OK. So everybody, I guess the most important speech in a lot of people's minds, L.Z., is Ann Romney's speech. What does she need to say?

GRANDERSON: She needs to make us care about her husband. She needs to get us to like her husband. She needs to help the American people see what she has seen the last 30 or 40 years about Mitt Romney. He's been having a difficult time doing this.

This is the second time as president and his likability numbers still haven't budged much beyond 45 percent. And so, hopefully, for his sake what his wife will be able to do is communicate all the wonderful things about him that his children see, that his friends see, that he's been unable to communicate to the American people.

COSTELLO: Will --

CAIN: Carol, let me say this, that's -- Ann Romney is the perfect person to have speaking at this time at this convention. I disagree with the ton of what L.Z. said in characterizing Mitt Romney a few minutes ago.

But one thing he was right on is Mitt Romney is not someone who emotes well. So, he's not going to be able to invoke that sense of compassion, however -- or I doubt that he will be able to. However, Ann Romney is the person that can do that.

And if we're at a time this nation needs to be brought together. If there is a natural disaster in New Orleans or along the Mississippi or Alabama Coast, Ann Romney is the person, I would suspect, who can deliver that message.

GRANDERSON: She is the person that can deliver for the Republicans. There are plenty of people on the Democratic side who will be able to deliver that message in any place at their base.

COSTELLO: L.Z. Granderson, Will Cain -- another interesting conversation thank you so much.

CAIN: Thank you, guys.

COSTELLO: Thank you so much.

Tonight at 8:00 Eastern, as part of CNN's Republican National Convention coverage, a profile of their presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. "Romney Revealed: Family, Faith and the Road to Power," followed at 9:30 Eastern by a preview of the convention it self. That's tonight on CNN.

She said good-bye to "American Idol." Now, Jennifer Lopez is trying her hand at a new TV project, an hour long family drama. And it's not based on her own life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: OK. So I guess we have to talk about it, Snooki. Someone violated my rule, no talking about Snooki on the show.

But a wonderful thing did happen to Snooki. And A.J. Hammer is here to tell us all about it.

Good morning.

A.J. HAMMER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" HOST: Come on, Carol. It's happy news this morning and Snooki has already been out there tweeting about this. The fact that she is not getting any sleep, it looks like Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi is already fully immersed in her newest reality series of motherhood.

A rep does tell us that the 24-year-old "Jersey Shore" star gave birth to a healthy 6 pound, 5 ounce baby boy. It happened at 3:00 a.m. Sunday in a New Jersey hospital, of course. And within an hour, Snooki was right there on Twitter, no big surprise. She was sending out the details to her 5.5 million Twitter followers, including his name.

Here's what she wrote. "I am so in love with my son Lorenzo Dominic. I had my little man last night, healthy at 6 pounds. He's my world."

No mention of pickles or beer or cocktails or anything. That's Lorenzo Dominic LaValle by the way the baby's father is long time boyfriend Jionni LaValle.

Now back in March when she announced her pregnancy, Snooki said that she and LaValle were engaged. To celebrate the happy occasion well MTV took the opportunity to tell fans that if they want to know more about the last months of Snooki's pregnancy they can tune in to the sixth season of "Jersey Shore" which debuts in October.

Carol, I know you may not be tuning in but nothing like a pregnancy to stir up a little publicity.

COSTELLO: I'm Italian-American. It's difficult. It's very difficult. But I try. I do. A.J. --

(CROSSTALK)

HAMMER: It's all we can ask of you Carol.

COSTELLO: I know -- A.J., thank you so much. A.J. will be back with us in the next hour of NEWSROOM with more "Showbiz Headlines". Thanks, A.J.

Actually he's going to tell us about this new anti-Obama documentary. It made its nationwide debut and is making a lot of money. We'll tell you more in the next hour of the NEWSROOM.

Isaac moving in and oil workers moving out. What it all means for you the next time you buy gas for your car.

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COSTELLO: Forty-nine minutes past the hour, checking our "Top Stories" now. Thousands of Gulf Coast residents are evacuating ahead of tropical storm Isaac following a similar path to Hurricane Katrina. It's expected to reach hurricane strength and make land fall late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Hurricane warning is already up along the northern Gulf Coast though from Morgan City, Louisiana to Destin, Florida. The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have declared states of emergency and they urge everyone to take precautions and prepare now.

Even if you don't live in the path of tropical storm Isaac, you could still feel -- you could still feel its effect as oil refineries in the Gulf shut down.

Maribel Aber joins me from New York to tell us how it's going to affect gas prices. It's always something.

MARIBEL ABER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol, it is always something. I want to put this in perspective of zeroes here. About a quarter of Gulf oil production is suspended, so what that is, is it knocks out more than 333,000 barrels of oil a day, 39 platforms have been evacuated and eight rigs.

Now the Gulf Coast is key to oil production in this country. 40 percent of the nation's petroleum refinery capacity is located along the Gulf Coast and there's a huge network of pipelines that funnels it to other parts of the country.

So just to make this picture a little bit clearer, half the gasoline used on the East Coast and half the crew will be run in western refineries that could come from the Gulf. So any disruptions, Carol, to supply in this area could send oil prices higher. And they've been -- you know volatile this morning, jumping at first but now slipping.

But Isaac is not the only reason here for any price impact. I want to make this clear. Over the weekend, there was a deadly refinery fire at a major facility in Venezuela so that's another factor that could crimp supply and drive all prices and then gas prices higher -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Maribel thanks so much.

We asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day the question for you this morning. "What does the political conventions mean to you?" Your responses next.

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COSTELLO: Ok, some more word on Isaac. This just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Grand Isle, Louisiana -- there at the bottom of Louisiana that tiny little fishing village, you know, that was affected during the Gulf oil spill, mandatory evacuations now in place. That means the 1,200 people who live there will have to get off that island and go somewhere safe.

Same for Jefferson Parish, that's south of New Orleans, about 9,000 people live there and they have been order to leave their homes just in case. So these are the two newest mandatory evacuation orders that we've heard of this morning. Of course, we'll keep you posted. We did ask you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, "What do the political conventions mean to you?"

This from Joy, "All I see is glitz and waste with a Hollywood touch of glamour. No I'm not watching because all I see is acting and full of promises dead speeches." Wow.

This from Susan, "I'd rather they spend money on the poor, the deficit, working out details of how we're going to get the people, banks, et cetera, out of trouble that ruined the worldwide economy."

This from Becky, "I want to know more about the candidates and watch the speakers and festivities. I enjoy watching both campaigns. I'm a junky."

And this from Bruce. "This year, the convention means nothing. They have known the candidates for almost a year now. Yet, in a debate over the national debt, how much will be spent on trappings alone -- buntings, placards, souvenirs -- mostly manufactured outside the United States."

Facebook.com/carolcnn if you would like to continue the conversation. Your comments on the next hour of NEWSROOM.

She's still in high school and now she's not only reading history. She's writing it. We'll tell you the story of Lydia Ko.

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COSTELLO: Let's check on sports now.

Sunday night baseball: Braves beat the Giants 7-1. (inaudible) Well, Tim Hudson picking up his seventh straight win. But get this, he's done mind-boggling 134-3 in his career when his team gives him a three-run lead or better. Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman both went deep for Atlanta. Braves lead the NOL card race by a mere percentage point over St. Louis.

To the Little League World Series now. No pitchers could handle slugger Noriyoku Osaka (ph) in this entire tournament. The 12-year- old went deep three times Sunday, including a game-ending two-run shot. That triggers a mercy roll. The Japanese lacquered the U.S. team from Tennessee, 12-2. It was Japan's second little league title in three years.

Youth wasted on the young? Not at the LPGA Canadian Open. 15- year-old Lydia Ko girl shot a final round 67 to become the tour's youngest champ ever. She's still in high school and despite the win, she plans to attend Stanford before turning pro.

After making LPGA history, Ko had someone special to thank.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYDIA KO, LPGA CANADIAN OPEN CHAMPION: I would like to thank my mom, you know. She's always there to support, two weeks ago at the U.S. Amateur, she was my caddie. Now today, she was, you know, being the spectator, looking and seeing if I'm doing everything right. And hopefully I have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I think she's proud, Lydia. That's a look at sports this morning.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.