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CNN Live Saturday

Ivory Coast Erupts In Violence; Democratic Voters Despondent After Election Results; Bird Flu Could Create Next Pandemic

Aired November 06, 2004 - 18:00   ET

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

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


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Lin and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Here's what's happening right now in the news. U.S. warplanes pound Falluja ahead of an all-out assault on a rebel stronghold. Ten thousand American and Iraqi troops are massing for the offensive.
Palestinian leaders say they will secure Gaza with extra security patrols representing different factions should Yasser Arafat die. He is still in a coma at a Paris hospital.

And a former French colony in Africa is exploding with violence in the midst of a civil war. Ivory Coast warplanes bombed French peacekeepers killing nine of them. The French destroyed two Ivory Coast aircraft. U.S. officials say an American citizen was killed.

Good evening, I'm Carol Lin, and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

Getting ready for the big fight. It doesn't stop with the fall of night. CNN's Karl Penhaul is with the troops as they near their target in Falluja.

And we're going to take a closer look at what some doctors say could become the next worldwide health disaster.

But right now, we're getting ready to witness what could be the mother of all battles in Falluja. Insurgents remind the multinational forces, though, that they can strike anywhere. This Saturday was especially deadly in the Sunni city of Samarra where U.S. forces battled insurgents just last month. Well, today a series of coordinated attacks killed at least 34 people. Dozens more were hurt. 16 U.S. soldiers also were wounded when their convoy came under attack near Ramadi. And like Falluja, it is a region once fiercely loyal to Saddam Hussein.

U.S. Marines say an assault on Falluja would be extremely bloody and some even compare it to the battle for Weh during the Vietnam War. CNN's Karl Penhaul is embedded with some of the Marines on the edge of Falluja.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, just real quick, Alpha Company, you here?

CROWD: Here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Engineers? CROWD: Here.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. Marines get ready to roll out on a night mission to the edge of Falluja.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Captain Tenant. For this evening, I'll be the serial commander for this movement.

PENHAUL: Preparations are almost complete for an all-out assault on the insurgent stronghold. The aim tonight is to probe Falluja's outer defenses and see how the estimated 3,000 fighters holed up inside react. The radio crackles orders and columns of tanks, armored attack vehicles and Humvees roll across the desert stopping and starting as commanders navigate under cover of darkness along dirt tracks and over sand berms. Overhead, there's a faint rumble from the engines of the U.S. war plane. Then it opens up with 105 millimeter cannons.

(on camera): We're at the northern gateway of Falluja here, a short distance from the city limit. A US AC-130 gunship appears to have hit the power grid and electricity is out across much of the city.

(voice-over): Tracer fire and a rack of machine guns cut through the night over northwest Falluja. The AC-130 specter gunship pounds away at suspected insurgent targets. This Marine unit's observing the northeast sector where Omar Hadid (ph), one of the top rebel commanders, is believed to be based.

Tonight, Falluja's defenders appear to keep their nerve and don't open fire on the U.S. patrol, waiting perhaps to lure the Marines into their city rigged with bobby traps and bombs.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, near Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, fighting door-to-door is what the troops are bracing for and just what Saddam Hussein had predicted would eventually happen. Later this hour, retired Major General Terry Murray is going to join me to talk about urban warfare and how you stop an insurgency.

But we want to move on to Paris now where much is at stake for the Middle East, where Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, remains in what we are now told is a medically induced coma. Outside the military hospital and in the Middle East, supporters are holding vigil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NABIL ADU RDEMEM, YASSER ARAFAT'S SPOKESMAN: Today, his doctors were with him and people around him and so far he is in a stable condition and he is still under constant medical observance.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LIN: Well, Palestinians are hoping their leader actually survives this crisis as he has with so many others in the past. It is practical to consider, though, what life after Arafat might be like. CNN's John Vause with that view from Ramallah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's like nothing they've ever seen before. Yasser Arafat, the great survivor, in a coma and close to death. And for most Palestinians, there is little else to do now but to watch from afar and wait for the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than 90 percent of the Palestinian people know that Arafat now is mind dead.

VAUSE (on camera): He's brain dead?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

VAUSE (voice-over): In Ramallah, the nighttime streets are packed, an end to another day of fasting during this holy month of Ramadan. Ahmed Nerramani sells clothes at a roadside stand. Like many Palestinians, he's angry the Israelis have denied Arafat a burial in Jerusalem.

AHMED NERRAMANI, STREET VENDOR, RAMALLAH (through translator): It's wrong. It's his right to be buried in Jerusalem, his homeland, the place he has fought for his entire life.

VAUSE: In the El Lamadi (ph) refugee camp, though some like Yacob Hamdeh are holding out hope Arafat will make a triumphant return.

YACOB HAMDEH, PALESTINIAN REFUGEE: But we will pray to God to make him come back healthy and good to continue his way.

VAUSE: These people are among the most loyal of Arafat's supporter, the refugees who still demand the right to return to the family homes they fled during Israel's war of independence.

(on camera): To Israel and the United States, Yasser Arafat may be considered an obstacle to peace, but to many Palestinian refugees, he is their champion, the leader who has consistently refused to give up their so-called right of return, the man who has never sold them out.

MUSTAFA BARGOUTI, POLITICAL ANALYST: One has to recognize that the whole movement of Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement was initiated in the refugee camps and among refugees (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

VAUSE (voice-over): And any future Palestinian leader will find it difficult to gain their trust and loyalty. Umm Ratif (ph), a refugee as old as Arafat, believes her future is now uncertain.

"Who knows what will happen to us after Arafat," she told me, "Maybe God will send us a better leader." John Vause, CNN, Ramallah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We've got some other news around the world as well. British police are reporting casualties in a train crash west of London. A train hit a car near the city of Reading and jumped the tracks. A rescue and recovery effort is under way right now at this hour.

And China is hosting a conference of ASAIN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The focus is regional security. One of the delegates is the deputy minister of defense of North Korea.

And the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, has met with the newly named president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. Both presidents vow to crack down on terrorists holed up in both sides of their borders.

And new hope for three United Nations workers being held hostage in Afghanistan. Militants holding the hostages said negotiations with Afghan government officials would continue past the Sunday deadline.

And back in this country, President Bush's second term doesn't officially begin until January, but there are already questions about what lies ahead. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash joins me now -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, the president used his weekly radio address today to once again express his desire to work with Democrats in his second term. But looking at his agenda, the road to bipartisanship has plenty of land mines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): Here's the president's post election goals...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Americans are expecting a bipartisan effort and results.

BASH: ...but here's his attitude about victory.

BUSH: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital and now I intend to spend it.

BASH: Can he reconcile the two; usher in bipartisanship when Democrats oppose much of the agenda he feels entitled to? Take social security reform. The Bush campaign pledge to create private accounts for younger Americans now tops his legislative agenda. Many Democrats insist they won't let it happen. They're digging in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president has proposed privatizing social security, which would cut the benefits that provide financial security for millions of seniors and the disabled.

BASH: Privatizing part of social security could cost between one and $2 trillion over 10 years. And the president promises in five years to cut the $413 billion deficit in half. Plus, the president's almost certain to face what could be the mother of all partisan fights, a Supreme Court nomination.

KEN DUBERSTEIN, FORMER REAGAN CHIEF OF STAFF: And we know Democrats in the Senate will draw a sharp line and oppose the president and even perhaps use a filibuster. That's if the president picks a highly controversial, divisive and ideological Supreme Court nominee.

BASH: Political analyst Norm Orenstein (ph) says Mr. Bush's appeal to conservatives makes compromise with Democrats hard.

DUBERSTEIN: Will he now be willing to alienate some of them, to make major policy goals happen? We don't have any sign that the reaching out is more than rhetoric at this point.

BASH: But Bush allies insist he's learned from the partisanship that often bedeviled his first term agenda.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think some of those lessons are, in fact, about building coalitions and about reaching out not just to your base but toward the center even if it's right of center and working with Democrats and independents alike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And another second term, Bush pledges not just to reach across party lines, but to reach across the Atlantic to talk and mend fences with some European allies that he quarreled with in his first term. And the president will have British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his top European ally, here at the White House this coming week in order to plot a strategy on how to rebuild relationships with others -- Carol.

LIN: Well, Dana, in this country, how is the president planning on reaching out to the Democrats?

BASH: Well, Carol, you know, if you look at history, if that's any guide in terms of the president's relationship with Democrats when he's trying to get things through Congress, he tends to sort of pick off a Democrat here or two to try to do whatever it is -- whatever issue it is that he has. For example, on tax cuts he looked for Democrats who came from states where he won big in -- particularly in the midterms, the Republicans won big in the midterms. That's likely a strategy he'll follow this time around. Look for conservative Democrats in states where he really did well and try to make it clear to them that they should really go with him or they could suffer the consequences at home.

LIN: All right, Dana Bash, thank you very much, live at the White House.

Well, they were killed in action nearly 40 years ago but the remains of six U.S. Air Force servicemen have just been identified. Up next tonight, find out about a former Vietnam POW finally laid to rest.

Plus, flu angst. Is another pandemic on the horizon? I'm going to talk to someone who followed the CDC's flu hunters who are tracking the killer bird flu in Asia.

And later...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel angry at Americans. I don't understand the mentality of a country -- so much red communicates so little tolerance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: The blue state blues. For some, the thoughts of four more years of President Bush is just too hard to handle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Six U.S. Air Force servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Their remains were identified through DNA testing. The crew's plane went down over Laos nearly 38 years ago.

Well, family members attended the somber service, remembering their loved ones who lost their lives fighting on the front lines. Elaine Quijano has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost 40 years ago the drumbeat of Vietnam called them away. This week, six Americans came home in one flag-draped coffin to be honored, saluted and finally laid to rest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They honored the flag and now the flag honors them.

QUIJANO: They were the crew of a U.S. Air Force AC-47 gunship. Kenneth Kryszak's father, Colonel Theodore Kryszak, piloted the plane.

KENNETH KRYSZAK, SON OF MIA SOLDIER: I was 6 years old when he was shot down. I lost my best buddy.

QUIJANO: The military says they were on a nighttime recon mission. The plane reported incoming fire and went down in the woods of Southern Laos. After years of red tape, authorities from the U.S. and Laos teamed up in the mid-'90s to search for the remains of American servicemen. And at an excavation like this one, officials found the crew of that gunship. The funeral at Arlington National Cemetery drew bikers from the POW/MIA advocates Rolling Thunder, who happened to be in town for a convention. Most didn't know these servicemen, but they understood their families' anguish. Then, in a ceremony that took less than an hour, decades of what ifs came to an end. The family members received their flags, their whispered words of comfort and finally said the good-byes they held back for 38 years.

KRYSZAK: He loved what he did. He did his duty and he was proud to. And he did it well.

QUIJANO: Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, the expectations were so high. Young voters in America turned out at the polls in record numbers. Why wasn't it enough for John Kerry? And what does it mean for the future?

And later, the fight for Falluja, as U.S. troops gear up for a major strike, I'm going to talk to a retired major general about what's happening, literally, what is happening on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: They're not buying it. That's the titles of a "New York Times" editorial today about efforts to get young Americans to vote. Well, for months celebrities from P. Diddy to Leonardo DiCapprio urged teens and 20-somethings to show up at the polls. And they turned out all right, but so did some others. CNN's Alina Cho reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

P. DIDDY, MUSICIAN: Are you all ready to make some history (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vote or die, choose or lose, campaigns to get out the youth vote, were everywhere this election season. Yet, when it came time to go to the polls, young Americans, the only voting age group that favored Kerry over Bush this year, the age group that some thought could decide the election, did not.

RUSSELL SIMMONS, FOUNDER, DEF JAM RECORDS: They could have made a difference. But they do make a difference.

CHO: Russell Simmons, responsible for bringing rap to the mainstream, talked to America's youth about civic responsibility this year and in many ways it worked. Twenty-one million Americans aged 18 to 29 voted this year, a record. But turnout was big in every age group, making young voters 17 percent of the total electorate, the same as in 2000. At New York University...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that this was kind of a confusing election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always just a certain percentage of young people who are going to feel that they're not making a difference no matter what.

CHO: Many students we spoke to said while they appreciate celebrities getting the word out about voting, some stars, they say, are missing the point. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is the problem with that, because I don't necessarily know that it encourages people to think about politics on their own and form their own opinions.

CHO: Political experts agree while concerts and star studded rallies can be effective...

MICHAEL MCDONALD, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: What motivates people is talking with another human being and having them explain to them why it's important for them to vote.

CHO: Russell Simmons believes the hip-hop community can make a difference, that when P. Diddy talks, people listen.

SIMMONS: This is a group that when they decide on which luxury watch is cool, all of America buys it.

CHO: But when it comes to the polls, this year, America's youth wasn't buying in quite as much as some had hoped.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Now, when people were asked by an exit poll -- series of exit pollsters why they voted the way they did, a stunning number of them said moral values. Now, that does mean different things to different people. I've got the author of "The American Catholic Voter, 200 Years of Political Impact." George Marlin with me today.

George, good to have you.

GEORGE MARLIN, AUTHOR, "THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC VOTER, 200 YEARS OF POLITICAL IMPACT": Thanks for having me.

LIN: I want to get an idea from you, how do you define moral value values and how that -- what did that mean in this campaign?

MARLIN: Well, I think what it meant in this campaign is people who voted were driven by cultural values. For the most part, they're people who subscribe to the tenants of Judeo-Christian beliefs. They live in them in every day life and they expect the public officials they vote for to support those views as well. So it transcends economic views. It transcends material gain. And you can see this by looking at some of the results. You know the coal -- Pottsville, Pennsylvania, coal town, economically depressed and voted George Bush. If you look at Bethlehem -- the city of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, economically depressed with Bethlehem Steel closing, they voted for Bush. So it's not an economic question. It comes down to those cultural values. In other words, they want to protect the way of life.

LIN: All right. Well, when it comes down to -- it does come down to pure numbers when it comes down to an election, when you consider that 27 percent of all voters turned out are Catholic voters. Take a look at a couple of polls that we have right now. One indicating that President Bush in 2004 got 52 percent of the Catholic vote versus in 2000. He picked up support here. A different poll in the state that really mattered this time around, the state of Ohio, President Bush with 55 percent of the Catholic vote, John Kerry with 43 percent of professed Catholics. It seems to me that the electorate is in search not only of the candidate that they want in the White House, but frankly the party of God. Does it feel like that to you?

MARLIN: Well, no. These -- for the most part, blue collar Catholics, and if you look at the number of practicing Catholics, four years ago, about 55 percent of them supported Bush. This year 63 percent voted. These are the same members of families that voted for Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy. Remember John Kennedy got 80 percent of the Catholic vote as did Al Smith in '28. They moved out of the Democratic Party because they felt a bunch of social engineers took it over and they felt unwanted in that party and they became Reagan Democrats. And they've been voting that way for a long time. The irony is the third Catholic nominee for president did not carry the Catholic vote. It was monolithic for Jack Kennedy and Al Smith.

LIN: So in today's day and age, when you're -- when we're talking about stem cells -- federal funding for stem research or the future of Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court or whether a man should be able to legally marry a man, it seems to me what the electorate is describing this time around is a cultural civil war. Is that fair to say?

MARLIN: Well, I think there's a cultural battle going on for 40 years. And remember these people broke away from the Democratic Party in the late '60s. They voted for Richard Nixon. They voted for Ronald Reagan overwhelmingly. They voted for George Bush I. So this has been going on for decades. And the Democratic Party, if you look at the profile of their delegates, 98 percent were pro abortion, 65 percent were either post civil unions or post same sex marriage. So you have a great cultural divide between the parties. And the Democratic Party tries to define it always as economic issues. It isn't. And this election proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

LIN: You bet, proving that the Democratic Party may be out of touch with what it is that people find most important to them. So does that mean then when conservative judges or even potentially the chief justice at the U.S. Supreme Court comes up for nomination, should the Democrats cave even if the nominations are partisan?

MARLIN: I don't think they can cave because the interest groups that control the Democratic Party will keep their feet to the fire. So I think the Democratic Party is going to say, listen, we on the left let Kerry get away with everything. We kept quiet. We behaved ourselves, the Howard Dean supporters. I think they're going to make an overt move to say we're going to do it this way our time. And I think you're going to see that culture war continue.

LIN: And how did does that culminate in 2008? Where is this country headed?

MARLIN: That's going to be -- I think there's going to be a battle for the soul of Republican Party with George Bush, obviously his second and last term, and you're going to see a battle within for the soul of the Democratic Party. But right now, the mechanics are controlled by the more left wing part of the party and they're going to fight to control it and put up one of their own for a nominee. So it could get pretty ugly four years from now.

LIN: Yes. So it's not a question of which souls go to heaven but which ones go to the White House. Thanks very much, George.

MARLIN: Thank you.

LIN: George Marlin, author of "The American Voter."

Please be sure to catch "THE CAPITAL GANG" at the top of the hour for their post election wrap-up. That's at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific.

But still ahead in this hour, bracing for battle. Families in Falluja pack up and head out leaving behind a ghost town in a war torn country.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN SMITH, HUSBAND IN FALLUJA: I don't want to spend another anniversary without him. I don't want to spend another birthday without him. I just want him home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: ...the impact right here at home. Straight ahead, live to Camp Pendleton, California to talk to the families of U.S. troops fighting in Falluja.

And later, election depression. For Bush foes across the nation, Kerry now out means the blues have set in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Welcome back, I'm Carol Lin and here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news.

Insurgents set off car bombs and launched mortar attacks in Samarra, killing at least 34 Iraqis and wounding dozens. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces prepare for an all-out assault on Falluja.

And while Palestinian supporters are holding a vigil outside a hospital in Paris for Yasser Arafat, his media spokesperson tells reporters he is not in a coma. He is, in fact, in stable condition and sleeping right now while doctors try to determine what ails the Palestinian leader, a very different picture forming outside of Paris now. We are staying on top of this story.

Also, Tony Blair will visit the White House next week. The British prime minister has been America's staunchest ally in the war in Iraq.

And British police are reporting casualties in a train crash about 50 miles west of London. Police say the train hit a car at a crossing and derailed. Emergency workers rushed to the scene and a rescue and recovery effort is under way.

The battle of all battles in Falluja, to root out insurgents. American men and women are posed to push into Falluja when and if the order is given. Now some say it could be the most violent battle in the Iraq war with troops fighting insurgents street by street, door by door. Retired Marine Major General Terry Murray is familiar with urban warfare. He joins me now from Washington.

General, the scenario, as we are hearing it, the fighting door to door in Falluja, how is that likely to go down if the orders are given?

MAJ. GEN. TERRY MURRAY, U.S. MARINE CORPS (RET.): Carol, I think it's going to be a very, very tough fight. For infantrymen, the worst nightmare, frankly, is fighting in an urban area. And consequently, when our troops some time in the near future with the coalition forces, cross the line of departure and begin the attack, what we can anticipate in a city that inhabits, when it's full, more than a quarter of a million people, this is going to be block to block, street to street, house to house fighting if the insurgents and the terrorists choose to stay and fight. That's the big question.

LIN: If, right. Negotiations are ongoing. There's certainly a warning by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that this battle may be inevitable if the insurgents don't give up. In the meantime, we do see U.S. war planes, including AC-130 gunships bombarding targets on the ground. What is it that they're trying to hit and why do they need to use 500-pound bombs to do it?

MURRAY: Carol, what the forces are trying to do before the attack begins is to first cordon off the battlefield. And they've done that already. Falluja is out in the desert. And they have put a security force around Falluja. The next thing that they do is attempt to shape the battlefield and what these forces are doing with air strikes and artillery is to make strategic and tactical strikes inside Falluja that will weaken the insurgent and terrorist forces who occupy those grounds.

LIN: But General, the military likes to use the phrase precision bombings. So while the military may report that they hit an arms depot or a shooting position by a group of insurgents on the ground, contrary reports say they hit a hospital or a civilian target. How precise can this bombing mission actually be?

MURRAY: We have the capabilities these days as long as we can pinpoint the location of the bad guys, we do have the ability to put precision-guided munitions in the back pockets of the insurgents. The fact is a battlefield, an area such as Falluja, is very, very difficult to dissect and determine exactly where insurgent headquarters may be, where weapons caches may be. But once that is determined, we have the navigational equipment and the electronics and the weaponry that enables us to put rounds on targets. So the big question is having eyes on those targets that permit us to then accurately put bombs on target.

LIN: All right, we hear some numbers. They can't be precise. Some 3,000 insurgents embedded in the city of Falluja. As many as, could be more or could be less, 10,000 Iraqi forces along with coalition forces ready to attack. What kind of casualty count are you expecting in this sort of battle?

MURRAY: Carol, it's very hard to predict that. The real question is how many insurgents and terrorists are actually in the city of Falluja. It could be anywhere from three to five or 6,000, as has been reported. And then the question is how strong is their will to fight. When our troops cross the line of departure and begin the attack, I think we have all the resources that are required to do what we need to do. Allowing that, an urban environment forces you into close quarters battle and you cannot engage targets at long range. You cannot see targets at long range. And consequently, when you operate in this kind of environment, you anticipate that your casualty count will be higher. But the real question is how strong is their will to fight and how prepared are they for us.

LIN: We may very well find out. Thank you very much, General. We'll see you in our primetime show at 10:00 as this battle starts to shape up.

MURRAY: Thank you.

LIN: Well, the Marines have their eyes on the battle ahead in Falluja, as we've been talking about. Their families have their eyes on the evening news. They haven't seen their loved ones for months and they know the fight for Falluja could be the deadliest yet. CNN's Donna Tetrault is at Camp Pendleton, California.

Donna, they've got to be on pins and needles right now.

DONNA TETRAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we've talked to several people here in Oceanside near Camp Pendleton and many of the Marines that we've talked to have said that they believe that we need to be in Falluja. We need to complete this mission. We were there, of course, in April and that mission was called off, that offensive was called off because of the possibility of too many civilian casualties.

Now, some of the Marines just back from Iraq are saying that they wish that they could be there in Falluja with their fellow soldiers. All of the Marines, though, that we talked to have said that they believe this will be a successful offensive. But basically, people here on the streets are saying there is some concern but not any more than usual. We did talk to one woman, a wife and mother, who said that her husband is in Iraq right now in Falluja. And she says that she feels like he's in another world and she's constantly worrying about him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TETRAULT (voice-over): A day at the beach for Megan Smith and her two daughters, Molly, 3, and Maggie, 11/2, isn't without thoughts that someone is missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my dad.

TETRAULT: Corporal Matthew Smith, Megan's husband is one of the thousands of Marines in Falluja preparing for an expected assault against insurgents.

SMITH: I don't want to spend another anniversary without him. I don't want to spend another birthday without him. I just want him home.

TETRAULT: New Year's Eve, the couple will celebrate their third year of marriage. But now Megan focuses more on the smaller milestones. The last time she spoke to her husband was about a week ago.

SMITH: When we get on the phone, he jokes a lot more than usual. So I know he's scared but he's trying to hide it. So it's -- I think it's very hard on him to be away again.

TETRAULT: This is Matthew's second deployment to Iraq, and Megan is worried she could get the worst news possible, like her neighbor did, now a widow.

SMITH: To see my neighbor get that news and to hear her cry, it was hard because I knew it could have been me or it could have been Matt. And I don't want it to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TETRAULT: And Megan says that she does a lot of praying. She prays every day. She said that when she married her husband, she realized what the drill was all about, she realized his job, but she said that it's still very difficult. And Megan is only 23 years old. Her husband is only 23. And they're trying to raise a very young family -- Carol.

LIN: Wow! Donna, I forget how young these people are. Boy, a lot at stake. Thank you very much. Donna Tetrault live at Camp Pendleton.

Well, what about the residents of Falluja. Well, over the past weeks, most of them have fled, some to the capital of Baghdad, but thousands are still there. CNN's Nic Robertson brings us a look inside a city surrounded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): This is the food market in Falluja. An automatic weapon rests on the fruit. Normally bustling, normally loaded with produce. This video, shot by a cameraman who lives in Falluja, depicts a town emptying of normal life. A resident packing to leave complains about the U.S. bombing.

"Where are the mujahadin," he says, "There are no mujahadin around these houses."

His neighbor shows buildings apparently damaged by explosions. You can hear the automatic weapons fire close by.

"These families have left the city," he says, "but the bombing continues. Look at the houses. They've destroyed everything."

In a Baghdad apartment, the Mehdi (ph) boys eagerly watch the news about their home town, Falluja. Their family is among the four- fifths of Falluja residents who are believed to have left, anticipating a U.S. and Iraqi government assault to drive out insurgents. Ali Medhdi (ph) is 9 years old.

"We fear the air strikes," he says, "They are very intense and the planes drop a lot of bombs. That's why we left Falluja."

His older brother, Muhammad, is a car mechanic.

"All of the people I know in Falluja have left already," he says, "only those with no place to go remain."

To the north in Samarra, insurgents struck in what appears to be coordinated attacks. At least 34 killed and dozens injured. As a car bomb detonated at the mayor's office and a police station in the city came under near simultaneous mortar and gunfire attack. Half an hour later, a vehicle bomb detonated by Iraqi troops on patrol with U.S. forces injured one Iraqi soldier and four passers-by.

(on camera): For the coalition and the Iraqi government, poised to drive insurgents out of Falluja, the attacks in Samarra are a stark reminder that even after eradicating insurgents, as they did in Samarra a month ago, there is no guarantee the insurgents won't return.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And still ahead tonight, in health, flu fears. Scientists on the hunt for what could be the next pandemic.

And later, a Texas sized controversy over school books, textbooks. Changes in store for students in the Lone Star State.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, if you played the game Rock, Paper, Scissor, you may think it's all a game of pure chance. Well, not so say organizers at the game's world championships. Yes, you heard me right. The game now has an official championship that draws contestants from around the world. Here's a closer look at the tournament that wrapped up recently in Toronto.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I now officially open the 2004 World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rock, paper, scissors really hasn't gotten the due it deserves. A lot of people have been under an erroneous perception that the game is purely random chance. We happen to know, as many studies have proven, that humans are actually incapable of being random.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our championship directors...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We took it upon ourselves on behalf of the World RPS Society, to have the rebirth of the World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championships.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our current world champion Rob Krueger is entering the building. This is who you're going to have to fight tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the world championship level, it sort of follows a game set, match scenario where you play a best of three in order to win the set. And you need to take two sets in order to move to the next round.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scissors cuts paper, point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are no longer...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The atmosphere at the world championships with the lights, the cameras, the media, crowds cheering for you or against you, all of that can be fairly intimidating. So if you haven't planned things out in advance, we don't know how you're going to play or if you haven't experienced it before and are prepared for sort of the riggers for what happens, it's very easy for people to fall into those patterns and for the expert to take advantage of those patterns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably the most well known strategic ploy is to tell your opponent what you're going to throw because if I tell my opponent what I'm going to throw, then that immediately puts them on the defensive and me on the offensive because I know if I'm lying or telling the truth and that's what separates really a pro player them from an amateur player.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of my basic fundamental skills is to always, every day wage psychological war with the opponent. It's everything from engaging them in the eyes, yelling at them. And it knocks them off their game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found again and again that players who were able to successfully intimidate their opponents seem to do a lot better at the game. Rock, paper, scissors really is the ultimate nonviolent conflict resolution mechanism. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We sort of see it as the impartial judge and jury and all those small irresolvable disputes that you have in life. When you're a child, it's about getting the ball over the fence where the mean dog lives. When you're a little bit older, it's who gets to sit in the front seat, who has to get off the couch to get a beer. And then later on in life, it's who has to change the diapers. People sort of have an affectionate place in their heart for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 2004 World Rock, Paper, Scissors champion!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, may the best man or woman win.

Just ahead, their goal was the make space travel possible for everyone. But today the hard work by the crew of Spaceship One literally paid off big.

And call it the blue state blues. They voted for Senator Kerry, so how are they going to handle the next four years?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In St. Louis, a sweet payday for the designers of the first privately manned rocket to make it into space. Burt Rutan's Spaceship One team received a $10 million check today for breaking through the earth's atmosphere twice within two weeks. A science organization started the Ansari X prize to encourage investment in private space travel and tourism. Congratulations.

And we also want to check some stories making headlines across America right now. Substantial layoffs may be on the way at the nation's second largest telecom company. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SBC communications says it will cut 10,000 jobs by the end of next year. SBC tells CNN the cuts will happen through attrition and involuntary programs. In other words, people are going to get fired.

And health textbooks for students in Texas will now define marriage as a lifelong union between a husband and wife. Publishers originally used the terms like "partners," but the Texas Board of Education objected saying that went against the Texas law banning the recognition of gay marriages.

All eyes are on Mount St. Helens in Washington State. A lava formation inside the mountain's crater has a new glowing protrusion the size of a 30-story building. Scientists say the lava dome has risen 330 feet in the last nine days, pushed up by magma or molten rock.

Also want to let you know obviously CNN can take you around the world, but for some reason we cannot take you live out of Albuquerque tonight where I was going to talk with a journalist who followed the CDC's flu hunters, a fascinating story. We're going to try to get that interview with her still and bring it to you in an upcoming program. We're going to keep you posted on that one.

And up next tonight, the Democrats in the dumps. Hear what some of them are saying about four more years of Mr. Bush, but first, here's Mark Shields to tell us what's ahead on "THE CAPITAL GANG."

Mark, good evening.

MARK SHIELDS, CO-HOST, "THE CAPITAL GANG": Hey, Carol, good to see you. But "THE CAPITAL GANG" will discuss a big win for Republicans and a disappointing loss for Democrats. George W. Bush's victory strengthened Republican control in both the House and the Senate. And we'll go beyond the Beltway to look at the Palestinians after Yasser Arafat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: It's been a tough week for many people living in those so- called blue states. CNN's Jeanne Moos has that story we hope or not.

All right. That's all the time we have for this hour. Our apologies, we're having a couple of technical problems tonight.

Coming up next, "THE CAPITAL GANG" and then at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN PRESENTS," tonight, the mission of George W. Bush. AT 9:00, Larry King's got the first lady, Laura Bush. And I'm going to be back at 10:00 Eastern tonight to the upcoming "Dallas" reunion show. I'm not talking about the White House. I'm talking about the TV show. Remember that one? I'm going to talk to one of the stars.

But right now, here's what's happening right now in the news. But first, we're going to go to Jeanne Moos on the blue state blues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a sentence that makes voters in the blue states feel sentenced to...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four more years of President Bush.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't mention the election to me.

MOOS (on camera): Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I am emotionally disturbed about the election.

MOOS (voice-over): What's the state of mind in the blue states?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feel my blues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so, so blue. I'm depressed. I really was...

MOOS (on camera): Clinically?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, not clinically. MOOS (voice-over): New Yorkers are sounding inconsolable even on voice mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, you, it's me. I still can't believe this. Oh, my God.

MOOS: A listing reportedly from the online marketplace, Craig's List, reads, "Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair physical fight to vent my anger."

Democracy Plaza is more like depression plaza. And that clever idea of turning the skating rink into an electoral map?

(on camera): You see those maps with the red all across of America and then on the edges, the blue states?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes us feel like you don't want to travel across the country. That -- you know that it's a different territory.

MOOS: You can always fly over it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can fly over it, but you don't want to go through there. And that they're completely different. And you don't know who these people are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel angry at Americans. I don't understand the mentality of a country. So much red to me indicates so little tolerance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to move to, like, a different country.

MOOS (voice-over): But don't pack your bags for Canada yet. Canadian officials made it clear fed up Americans would have to wait like other immigrants. "You just can't come into Canada and say, I'm going to stay here."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not moving, but I'm cursing a lot.

MOOS: Jokesters on the web have been adding new provinces to Canada. The United States of Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe in the next four years I'll move, but not to a red state I assure you that.

MOOS: As for the president...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really think that he did a wonderful job of scaring the hell out of people in this country.

MOOS: It figures that a New York-based comedy show would pick up on the red/blue divide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We in New York are too close to the terrorism and the gay people. Only the red states with the advantage of a safe distance can take in the whole picture.

MOOS: But not every blue state voter is seeing red over the president's re-election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God told me he brought Bush and you're going to see what is going to happen...

MOOS (on camera): Wait a minute, God told you he brought Bush?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God, yes. I've seen Jesus Christ. He told me he put Bush in power, OK? So -- and now...

MOOS: Well, that's better than an exit poll.

(voice-over): Despite Senator Kerry's concession, there's no talk of cessation, just the blue state blues.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Could it really be all that bad? All right, well, more with Mark Shields and THE CAPITAL GANG, a perfect segway. I'm Carol Lin. I'll see you on the news on the hour.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired November 6, 2004 - 18:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Lin and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Here's what's happening right now in the news. U.S. warplanes pound Falluja ahead of an all-out assault on a rebel stronghold. Ten thousand American and Iraqi troops are massing for the offensive.
Palestinian leaders say they will secure Gaza with extra security patrols representing different factions should Yasser Arafat die. He is still in a coma at a Paris hospital.

And a former French colony in Africa is exploding with violence in the midst of a civil war. Ivory Coast warplanes bombed French peacekeepers killing nine of them. The French destroyed two Ivory Coast aircraft. U.S. officials say an American citizen was killed.

Good evening, I'm Carol Lin, and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

Getting ready for the big fight. It doesn't stop with the fall of night. CNN's Karl Penhaul is with the troops as they near their target in Falluja.

And we're going to take a closer look at what some doctors say could become the next worldwide health disaster.

But right now, we're getting ready to witness what could be the mother of all battles in Falluja. Insurgents remind the multinational forces, though, that they can strike anywhere. This Saturday was especially deadly in the Sunni city of Samarra where U.S. forces battled insurgents just last month. Well, today a series of coordinated attacks killed at least 34 people. Dozens more were hurt. 16 U.S. soldiers also were wounded when their convoy came under attack near Ramadi. And like Falluja, it is a region once fiercely loyal to Saddam Hussein.

U.S. Marines say an assault on Falluja would be extremely bloody and some even compare it to the battle for Weh during the Vietnam War. CNN's Karl Penhaul is embedded with some of the Marines on the edge of Falluja.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, just real quick, Alpha Company, you here?

CROWD: Here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Engineers? CROWD: Here.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. Marines get ready to roll out on a night mission to the edge of Falluja.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Captain Tenant. For this evening, I'll be the serial commander for this movement.

PENHAUL: Preparations are almost complete for an all-out assault on the insurgent stronghold. The aim tonight is to probe Falluja's outer defenses and see how the estimated 3,000 fighters holed up inside react. The radio crackles orders and columns of tanks, armored attack vehicles and Humvees roll across the desert stopping and starting as commanders navigate under cover of darkness along dirt tracks and over sand berms. Overhead, there's a faint rumble from the engines of the U.S. war plane. Then it opens up with 105 millimeter cannons.

(on camera): We're at the northern gateway of Falluja here, a short distance from the city limit. A US AC-130 gunship appears to have hit the power grid and electricity is out across much of the city.

(voice-over): Tracer fire and a rack of machine guns cut through the night over northwest Falluja. The AC-130 specter gunship pounds away at suspected insurgent targets. This Marine unit's observing the northeast sector where Omar Hadid (ph), one of the top rebel commanders, is believed to be based.

Tonight, Falluja's defenders appear to keep their nerve and don't open fire on the U.S. patrol, waiting perhaps to lure the Marines into their city rigged with bobby traps and bombs.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, near Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, fighting door-to-door is what the troops are bracing for and just what Saddam Hussein had predicted would eventually happen. Later this hour, retired Major General Terry Murray is going to join me to talk about urban warfare and how you stop an insurgency.

But we want to move on to Paris now where much is at stake for the Middle East, where Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, remains in what we are now told is a medically induced coma. Outside the military hospital and in the Middle East, supporters are holding vigil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NABIL ADU RDEMEM, YASSER ARAFAT'S SPOKESMAN: Today, his doctors were with him and people around him and so far he is in a stable condition and he is still under constant medical observance.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LIN: Well, Palestinians are hoping their leader actually survives this crisis as he has with so many others in the past. It is practical to consider, though, what life after Arafat might be like. CNN's John Vause with that view from Ramallah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's like nothing they've ever seen before. Yasser Arafat, the great survivor, in a coma and close to death. And for most Palestinians, there is little else to do now but to watch from afar and wait for the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than 90 percent of the Palestinian people know that Arafat now is mind dead.

VAUSE (on camera): He's brain dead?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

VAUSE (voice-over): In Ramallah, the nighttime streets are packed, an end to another day of fasting during this holy month of Ramadan. Ahmed Nerramani sells clothes at a roadside stand. Like many Palestinians, he's angry the Israelis have denied Arafat a burial in Jerusalem.

AHMED NERRAMANI, STREET VENDOR, RAMALLAH (through translator): It's wrong. It's his right to be buried in Jerusalem, his homeland, the place he has fought for his entire life.

VAUSE: In the El Lamadi (ph) refugee camp, though some like Yacob Hamdeh are holding out hope Arafat will make a triumphant return.

YACOB HAMDEH, PALESTINIAN REFUGEE: But we will pray to God to make him come back healthy and good to continue his way.

VAUSE: These people are among the most loyal of Arafat's supporter, the refugees who still demand the right to return to the family homes they fled during Israel's war of independence.

(on camera): To Israel and the United States, Yasser Arafat may be considered an obstacle to peace, but to many Palestinian refugees, he is their champion, the leader who has consistently refused to give up their so-called right of return, the man who has never sold them out.

MUSTAFA BARGOUTI, POLITICAL ANALYST: One has to recognize that the whole movement of Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement was initiated in the refugee camps and among refugees (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

VAUSE (voice-over): And any future Palestinian leader will find it difficult to gain their trust and loyalty. Umm Ratif (ph), a refugee as old as Arafat, believes her future is now uncertain.

"Who knows what will happen to us after Arafat," she told me, "Maybe God will send us a better leader." John Vause, CNN, Ramallah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We've got some other news around the world as well. British police are reporting casualties in a train crash west of London. A train hit a car near the city of Reading and jumped the tracks. A rescue and recovery effort is under way right now at this hour.

And China is hosting a conference of ASAIN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The focus is regional security. One of the delegates is the deputy minister of defense of North Korea.

And the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, has met with the newly named president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. Both presidents vow to crack down on terrorists holed up in both sides of their borders.

And new hope for three United Nations workers being held hostage in Afghanistan. Militants holding the hostages said negotiations with Afghan government officials would continue past the Sunday deadline.

And back in this country, President Bush's second term doesn't officially begin until January, but there are already questions about what lies ahead. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash joins me now -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, the president used his weekly radio address today to once again express his desire to work with Democrats in his second term. But looking at his agenda, the road to bipartisanship has plenty of land mines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): Here's the president's post election goals...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Americans are expecting a bipartisan effort and results.

BASH: ...but here's his attitude about victory.

BUSH: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital and now I intend to spend it.

BASH: Can he reconcile the two; usher in bipartisanship when Democrats oppose much of the agenda he feels entitled to? Take social security reform. The Bush campaign pledge to create private accounts for younger Americans now tops his legislative agenda. Many Democrats insist they won't let it happen. They're digging in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president has proposed privatizing social security, which would cut the benefits that provide financial security for millions of seniors and the disabled.

BASH: Privatizing part of social security could cost between one and $2 trillion over 10 years. And the president promises in five years to cut the $413 billion deficit in half. Plus, the president's almost certain to face what could be the mother of all partisan fights, a Supreme Court nomination.

KEN DUBERSTEIN, FORMER REAGAN CHIEF OF STAFF: And we know Democrats in the Senate will draw a sharp line and oppose the president and even perhaps use a filibuster. That's if the president picks a highly controversial, divisive and ideological Supreme Court nominee.

BASH: Political analyst Norm Orenstein (ph) says Mr. Bush's appeal to conservatives makes compromise with Democrats hard.

DUBERSTEIN: Will he now be willing to alienate some of them, to make major policy goals happen? We don't have any sign that the reaching out is more than rhetoric at this point.

BASH: But Bush allies insist he's learned from the partisanship that often bedeviled his first term agenda.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think some of those lessons are, in fact, about building coalitions and about reaching out not just to your base but toward the center even if it's right of center and working with Democrats and independents alike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And another second term, Bush pledges not just to reach across party lines, but to reach across the Atlantic to talk and mend fences with some European allies that he quarreled with in his first term. And the president will have British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his top European ally, here at the White House this coming week in order to plot a strategy on how to rebuild relationships with others -- Carol.

LIN: Well, Dana, in this country, how is the president planning on reaching out to the Democrats?

BASH: Well, Carol, you know, if you look at history, if that's any guide in terms of the president's relationship with Democrats when he's trying to get things through Congress, he tends to sort of pick off a Democrat here or two to try to do whatever it is -- whatever issue it is that he has. For example, on tax cuts he looked for Democrats who came from states where he won big in -- particularly in the midterms, the Republicans won big in the midterms. That's likely a strategy he'll follow this time around. Look for conservative Democrats in states where he really did well and try to make it clear to them that they should really go with him or they could suffer the consequences at home.

LIN: All right, Dana Bash, thank you very much, live at the White House.

Well, they were killed in action nearly 40 years ago but the remains of six U.S. Air Force servicemen have just been identified. Up next tonight, find out about a former Vietnam POW finally laid to rest.

Plus, flu angst. Is another pandemic on the horizon? I'm going to talk to someone who followed the CDC's flu hunters who are tracking the killer bird flu in Asia.

And later...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel angry at Americans. I don't understand the mentality of a country -- so much red communicates so little tolerance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: The blue state blues. For some, the thoughts of four more years of President Bush is just too hard to handle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Six U.S. Air Force servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War have been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Their remains were identified through DNA testing. The crew's plane went down over Laos nearly 38 years ago.

Well, family members attended the somber service, remembering their loved ones who lost their lives fighting on the front lines. Elaine Quijano has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost 40 years ago the drumbeat of Vietnam called them away. This week, six Americans came home in one flag-draped coffin to be honored, saluted and finally laid to rest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They honored the flag and now the flag honors them.

QUIJANO: They were the crew of a U.S. Air Force AC-47 gunship. Kenneth Kryszak's father, Colonel Theodore Kryszak, piloted the plane.

KENNETH KRYSZAK, SON OF MIA SOLDIER: I was 6 years old when he was shot down. I lost my best buddy.

QUIJANO: The military says they were on a nighttime recon mission. The plane reported incoming fire and went down in the woods of Southern Laos. After years of red tape, authorities from the U.S. and Laos teamed up in the mid-'90s to search for the remains of American servicemen. And at an excavation like this one, officials found the crew of that gunship. The funeral at Arlington National Cemetery drew bikers from the POW/MIA advocates Rolling Thunder, who happened to be in town for a convention. Most didn't know these servicemen, but they understood their families' anguish. Then, in a ceremony that took less than an hour, decades of what ifs came to an end. The family members received their flags, their whispered words of comfort and finally said the good-byes they held back for 38 years.

KRYSZAK: He loved what he did. He did his duty and he was proud to. And he did it well.

QUIJANO: Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, the expectations were so high. Young voters in America turned out at the polls in record numbers. Why wasn't it enough for John Kerry? And what does it mean for the future?

And later, the fight for Falluja, as U.S. troops gear up for a major strike, I'm going to talk to a retired major general about what's happening, literally, what is happening on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: They're not buying it. That's the titles of a "New York Times" editorial today about efforts to get young Americans to vote. Well, for months celebrities from P. Diddy to Leonardo DiCapprio urged teens and 20-somethings to show up at the polls. And they turned out all right, but so did some others. CNN's Alina Cho reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

P. DIDDY, MUSICIAN: Are you all ready to make some history (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vote or die, choose or lose, campaigns to get out the youth vote, were everywhere this election season. Yet, when it came time to go to the polls, young Americans, the only voting age group that favored Kerry over Bush this year, the age group that some thought could decide the election, did not.

RUSSELL SIMMONS, FOUNDER, DEF JAM RECORDS: They could have made a difference. But they do make a difference.

CHO: Russell Simmons, responsible for bringing rap to the mainstream, talked to America's youth about civic responsibility this year and in many ways it worked. Twenty-one million Americans aged 18 to 29 voted this year, a record. But turnout was big in every age group, making young voters 17 percent of the total electorate, the same as in 2000. At New York University...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that this was kind of a confusing election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always just a certain percentage of young people who are going to feel that they're not making a difference no matter what.

CHO: Many students we spoke to said while they appreciate celebrities getting the word out about voting, some stars, they say, are missing the point. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is the problem with that, because I don't necessarily know that it encourages people to think about politics on their own and form their own opinions.

CHO: Political experts agree while concerts and star studded rallies can be effective...

MICHAEL MCDONALD, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: What motivates people is talking with another human being and having them explain to them why it's important for them to vote.

CHO: Russell Simmons believes the hip-hop community can make a difference, that when P. Diddy talks, people listen.

SIMMONS: This is a group that when they decide on which luxury watch is cool, all of America buys it.

CHO: But when it comes to the polls, this year, America's youth wasn't buying in quite as much as some had hoped.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Now, when people were asked by an exit poll -- series of exit pollsters why they voted the way they did, a stunning number of them said moral values. Now, that does mean different things to different people. I've got the author of "The American Catholic Voter, 200 Years of Political Impact." George Marlin with me today.

George, good to have you.

GEORGE MARLIN, AUTHOR, "THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC VOTER, 200 YEARS OF POLITICAL IMPACT": Thanks for having me.

LIN: I want to get an idea from you, how do you define moral value values and how that -- what did that mean in this campaign?

MARLIN: Well, I think what it meant in this campaign is people who voted were driven by cultural values. For the most part, they're people who subscribe to the tenants of Judeo-Christian beliefs. They live in them in every day life and they expect the public officials they vote for to support those views as well. So it transcends economic views. It transcends material gain. And you can see this by looking at some of the results. You know the coal -- Pottsville, Pennsylvania, coal town, economically depressed and voted George Bush. If you look at Bethlehem -- the city of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, economically depressed with Bethlehem Steel closing, they voted for Bush. So it's not an economic question. It comes down to those cultural values. In other words, they want to protect the way of life.

LIN: All right. Well, when it comes down to -- it does come down to pure numbers when it comes down to an election, when you consider that 27 percent of all voters turned out are Catholic voters. Take a look at a couple of polls that we have right now. One indicating that President Bush in 2004 got 52 percent of the Catholic vote versus in 2000. He picked up support here. A different poll in the state that really mattered this time around, the state of Ohio, President Bush with 55 percent of the Catholic vote, John Kerry with 43 percent of professed Catholics. It seems to me that the electorate is in search not only of the candidate that they want in the White House, but frankly the party of God. Does it feel like that to you?

MARLIN: Well, no. These -- for the most part, blue collar Catholics, and if you look at the number of practicing Catholics, four years ago, about 55 percent of them supported Bush. This year 63 percent voted. These are the same members of families that voted for Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy. Remember John Kennedy got 80 percent of the Catholic vote as did Al Smith in '28. They moved out of the Democratic Party because they felt a bunch of social engineers took it over and they felt unwanted in that party and they became Reagan Democrats. And they've been voting that way for a long time. The irony is the third Catholic nominee for president did not carry the Catholic vote. It was monolithic for Jack Kennedy and Al Smith.

LIN: So in today's day and age, when you're -- when we're talking about stem cells -- federal funding for stem research or the future of Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court or whether a man should be able to legally marry a man, it seems to me what the electorate is describing this time around is a cultural civil war. Is that fair to say?

MARLIN: Well, I think there's a cultural battle going on for 40 years. And remember these people broke away from the Democratic Party in the late '60s. They voted for Richard Nixon. They voted for Ronald Reagan overwhelmingly. They voted for George Bush I. So this has been going on for decades. And the Democratic Party, if you look at the profile of their delegates, 98 percent were pro abortion, 65 percent were either post civil unions or post same sex marriage. So you have a great cultural divide between the parties. And the Democratic Party tries to define it always as economic issues. It isn't. And this election proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

LIN: You bet, proving that the Democratic Party may be out of touch with what it is that people find most important to them. So does that mean then when conservative judges or even potentially the chief justice at the U.S. Supreme Court comes up for nomination, should the Democrats cave even if the nominations are partisan?

MARLIN: I don't think they can cave because the interest groups that control the Democratic Party will keep their feet to the fire. So I think the Democratic Party is going to say, listen, we on the left let Kerry get away with everything. We kept quiet. We behaved ourselves, the Howard Dean supporters. I think they're going to make an overt move to say we're going to do it this way our time. And I think you're going to see that culture war continue.

LIN: And how did does that culminate in 2008? Where is this country headed?

MARLIN: That's going to be -- I think there's going to be a battle for the soul of Republican Party with George Bush, obviously his second and last term, and you're going to see a battle within for the soul of the Democratic Party. But right now, the mechanics are controlled by the more left wing part of the party and they're going to fight to control it and put up one of their own for a nominee. So it could get pretty ugly four years from now.

LIN: Yes. So it's not a question of which souls go to heaven but which ones go to the White House. Thanks very much, George.

MARLIN: Thank you.

LIN: George Marlin, author of "The American Voter."

Please be sure to catch "THE CAPITAL GANG" at the top of the hour for their post election wrap-up. That's at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific.

But still ahead in this hour, bracing for battle. Families in Falluja pack up and head out leaving behind a ghost town in a war torn country.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN SMITH, HUSBAND IN FALLUJA: I don't want to spend another anniversary without him. I don't want to spend another birthday without him. I just want him home.

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LIN: ...the impact right here at home. Straight ahead, live to Camp Pendleton, California to talk to the families of U.S. troops fighting in Falluja.

And later, election depression. For Bush foes across the nation, Kerry now out means the blues have set in.

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LIN: Welcome back, I'm Carol Lin and here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news.

Insurgents set off car bombs and launched mortar attacks in Samarra, killing at least 34 Iraqis and wounding dozens. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces prepare for an all-out assault on Falluja.

And while Palestinian supporters are holding a vigil outside a hospital in Paris for Yasser Arafat, his media spokesperson tells reporters he is not in a coma. He is, in fact, in stable condition and sleeping right now while doctors try to determine what ails the Palestinian leader, a very different picture forming outside of Paris now. We are staying on top of this story.

Also, Tony Blair will visit the White House next week. The British prime minister has been America's staunchest ally in the war in Iraq.

And British police are reporting casualties in a train crash about 50 miles west of London. Police say the train hit a car at a crossing and derailed. Emergency workers rushed to the scene and a rescue and recovery effort is under way.

The battle of all battles in Falluja, to root out insurgents. American men and women are posed to push into Falluja when and if the order is given. Now some say it could be the most violent battle in the Iraq war with troops fighting insurgents street by street, door by door. Retired Marine Major General Terry Murray is familiar with urban warfare. He joins me now from Washington.

General, the scenario, as we are hearing it, the fighting door to door in Falluja, how is that likely to go down if the orders are given?

MAJ. GEN. TERRY MURRAY, U.S. MARINE CORPS (RET.): Carol, I think it's going to be a very, very tough fight. For infantrymen, the worst nightmare, frankly, is fighting in an urban area. And consequently, when our troops some time in the near future with the coalition forces, cross the line of departure and begin the attack, what we can anticipate in a city that inhabits, when it's full, more than a quarter of a million people, this is going to be block to block, street to street, house to house fighting if the insurgents and the terrorists choose to stay and fight. That's the big question.

LIN: If, right. Negotiations are ongoing. There's certainly a warning by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that this battle may be inevitable if the insurgents don't give up. In the meantime, we do see U.S. war planes, including AC-130 gunships bombarding targets on the ground. What is it that they're trying to hit and why do they need to use 500-pound bombs to do it?

MURRAY: Carol, what the forces are trying to do before the attack begins is to first cordon off the battlefield. And they've done that already. Falluja is out in the desert. And they have put a security force around Falluja. The next thing that they do is attempt to shape the battlefield and what these forces are doing with air strikes and artillery is to make strategic and tactical strikes inside Falluja that will weaken the insurgent and terrorist forces who occupy those grounds.

LIN: But General, the military likes to use the phrase precision bombings. So while the military may report that they hit an arms depot or a shooting position by a group of insurgents on the ground, contrary reports say they hit a hospital or a civilian target. How precise can this bombing mission actually be?

MURRAY: We have the capabilities these days as long as we can pinpoint the location of the bad guys, we do have the ability to put precision-guided munitions in the back pockets of the insurgents. The fact is a battlefield, an area such as Falluja, is very, very difficult to dissect and determine exactly where insurgent headquarters may be, where weapons caches may be. But once that is determined, we have the navigational equipment and the electronics and the weaponry that enables us to put rounds on targets. So the big question is having eyes on those targets that permit us to then accurately put bombs on target.

LIN: All right, we hear some numbers. They can't be precise. Some 3,000 insurgents embedded in the city of Falluja. As many as, could be more or could be less, 10,000 Iraqi forces along with coalition forces ready to attack. What kind of casualty count are you expecting in this sort of battle?

MURRAY: Carol, it's very hard to predict that. The real question is how many insurgents and terrorists are actually in the city of Falluja. It could be anywhere from three to five or 6,000, as has been reported. And then the question is how strong is their will to fight. When our troops cross the line of departure and begin the attack, I think we have all the resources that are required to do what we need to do. Allowing that, an urban environment forces you into close quarters battle and you cannot engage targets at long range. You cannot see targets at long range. And consequently, when you operate in this kind of environment, you anticipate that your casualty count will be higher. But the real question is how strong is their will to fight and how prepared are they for us.

LIN: We may very well find out. Thank you very much, General. We'll see you in our primetime show at 10:00 as this battle starts to shape up.

MURRAY: Thank you.

LIN: Well, the Marines have their eyes on the battle ahead in Falluja, as we've been talking about. Their families have their eyes on the evening news. They haven't seen their loved ones for months and they know the fight for Falluja could be the deadliest yet. CNN's Donna Tetrault is at Camp Pendleton, California.

Donna, they've got to be on pins and needles right now.

DONNA TETRAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we've talked to several people here in Oceanside near Camp Pendleton and many of the Marines that we've talked to have said that they believe that we need to be in Falluja. We need to complete this mission. We were there, of course, in April and that mission was called off, that offensive was called off because of the possibility of too many civilian casualties.

Now, some of the Marines just back from Iraq are saying that they wish that they could be there in Falluja with their fellow soldiers. All of the Marines, though, that we talked to have said that they believe this will be a successful offensive. But basically, people here on the streets are saying there is some concern but not any more than usual. We did talk to one woman, a wife and mother, who said that her husband is in Iraq right now in Falluja. And she says that she feels like he's in another world and she's constantly worrying about him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TETRAULT (voice-over): A day at the beach for Megan Smith and her two daughters, Molly, 3, and Maggie, 11/2, isn't without thoughts that someone is missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my dad.

TETRAULT: Corporal Matthew Smith, Megan's husband is one of the thousands of Marines in Falluja preparing for an expected assault against insurgents.

SMITH: I don't want to spend another anniversary without him. I don't want to spend another birthday without him. I just want him home.

TETRAULT: New Year's Eve, the couple will celebrate their third year of marriage. But now Megan focuses more on the smaller milestones. The last time she spoke to her husband was about a week ago.

SMITH: When we get on the phone, he jokes a lot more than usual. So I know he's scared but he's trying to hide it. So it's -- I think it's very hard on him to be away again.

TETRAULT: This is Matthew's second deployment to Iraq, and Megan is worried she could get the worst news possible, like her neighbor did, now a widow.

SMITH: To see my neighbor get that news and to hear her cry, it was hard because I knew it could have been me or it could have been Matt. And I don't want it to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TETRAULT: And Megan says that she does a lot of praying. She prays every day. She said that when she married her husband, she realized what the drill was all about, she realized his job, but she said that it's still very difficult. And Megan is only 23 years old. Her husband is only 23. And they're trying to raise a very young family -- Carol.

LIN: Wow! Donna, I forget how young these people are. Boy, a lot at stake. Thank you very much. Donna Tetrault live at Camp Pendleton.

Well, what about the residents of Falluja. Well, over the past weeks, most of them have fled, some to the capital of Baghdad, but thousands are still there. CNN's Nic Robertson brings us a look inside a city surrounded.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): This is the food market in Falluja. An automatic weapon rests on the fruit. Normally bustling, normally loaded with produce. This video, shot by a cameraman who lives in Falluja, depicts a town emptying of normal life. A resident packing to leave complains about the U.S. bombing.

"Where are the mujahadin," he says, "There are no mujahadin around these houses."

His neighbor shows buildings apparently damaged by explosions. You can hear the automatic weapons fire close by.

"These families have left the city," he says, "but the bombing continues. Look at the houses. They've destroyed everything."

In a Baghdad apartment, the Mehdi (ph) boys eagerly watch the news about their home town, Falluja. Their family is among the four- fifths of Falluja residents who are believed to have left, anticipating a U.S. and Iraqi government assault to drive out insurgents. Ali Medhdi (ph) is 9 years old.

"We fear the air strikes," he says, "They are very intense and the planes drop a lot of bombs. That's why we left Falluja."

His older brother, Muhammad, is a car mechanic.

"All of the people I know in Falluja have left already," he says, "only those with no place to go remain."

To the north in Samarra, insurgents struck in what appears to be coordinated attacks. At least 34 killed and dozens injured. As a car bomb detonated at the mayor's office and a police station in the city came under near simultaneous mortar and gunfire attack. Half an hour later, a vehicle bomb detonated by Iraqi troops on patrol with U.S. forces injured one Iraqi soldier and four passers-by.

(on camera): For the coalition and the Iraqi government, poised to drive insurgents out of Falluja, the attacks in Samarra are a stark reminder that even after eradicating insurgents, as they did in Samarra a month ago, there is no guarantee the insurgents won't return.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad, Iraq.

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LIN: And still ahead tonight, in health, flu fears. Scientists on the hunt for what could be the next pandemic.

And later, a Texas sized controversy over school books, textbooks. Changes in store for students in the Lone Star State.

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LIN: Well, if you played the game Rock, Paper, Scissor, you may think it's all a game of pure chance. Well, not so say organizers at the game's world championships. Yes, you heard me right. The game now has an official championship that draws contestants from around the world. Here's a closer look at the tournament that wrapped up recently in Toronto.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I now officially open the 2004 World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rock, paper, scissors really hasn't gotten the due it deserves. A lot of people have been under an erroneous perception that the game is purely random chance. We happen to know, as many studies have proven, that humans are actually incapable of being random.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our championship directors...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We took it upon ourselves on behalf of the World RPS Society, to have the rebirth of the World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championships.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our current world champion Rob Krueger is entering the building. This is who you're going to have to fight tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the world championship level, it sort of follows a game set, match scenario where you play a best of three in order to win the set. And you need to take two sets in order to move to the next round.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scissors cuts paper, point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are no longer...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The atmosphere at the world championships with the lights, the cameras, the media, crowds cheering for you or against you, all of that can be fairly intimidating. So if you haven't planned things out in advance, we don't know how you're going to play or if you haven't experienced it before and are prepared for sort of the riggers for what happens, it's very easy for people to fall into those patterns and for the expert to take advantage of those patterns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably the most well known strategic ploy is to tell your opponent what you're going to throw because if I tell my opponent what I'm going to throw, then that immediately puts them on the defensive and me on the offensive because I know if I'm lying or telling the truth and that's what separates really a pro player them from an amateur player.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of my basic fundamental skills is to always, every day wage psychological war with the opponent. It's everything from engaging them in the eyes, yelling at them. And it knocks them off their game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found again and again that players who were able to successfully intimidate their opponents seem to do a lot better at the game. Rock, paper, scissors really is the ultimate nonviolent conflict resolution mechanism. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We sort of see it as the impartial judge and jury and all those small irresolvable disputes that you have in life. When you're a child, it's about getting the ball over the fence where the mean dog lives. When you're a little bit older, it's who gets to sit in the front seat, who has to get off the couch to get a beer. And then later on in life, it's who has to change the diapers. People sort of have an affectionate place in their heart for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 2004 World Rock, Paper, Scissors champion!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, may the best man or woman win.

Just ahead, their goal was the make space travel possible for everyone. But today the hard work by the crew of Spaceship One literally paid off big.

And call it the blue state blues. They voted for Senator Kerry, so how are they going to handle the next four years?

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LIN: In St. Louis, a sweet payday for the designers of the first privately manned rocket to make it into space. Burt Rutan's Spaceship One team received a $10 million check today for breaking through the earth's atmosphere twice within two weeks. A science organization started the Ansari X prize to encourage investment in private space travel and tourism. Congratulations.

And we also want to check some stories making headlines across America right now. Substantial layoffs may be on the way at the nation's second largest telecom company. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SBC communications says it will cut 10,000 jobs by the end of next year. SBC tells CNN the cuts will happen through attrition and involuntary programs. In other words, people are going to get fired.

And health textbooks for students in Texas will now define marriage as a lifelong union between a husband and wife. Publishers originally used the terms like "partners," but the Texas Board of Education objected saying that went against the Texas law banning the recognition of gay marriages.

All eyes are on Mount St. Helens in Washington State. A lava formation inside the mountain's crater has a new glowing protrusion the size of a 30-story building. Scientists say the lava dome has risen 330 feet in the last nine days, pushed up by magma or molten rock.

Also want to let you know obviously CNN can take you around the world, but for some reason we cannot take you live out of Albuquerque tonight where I was going to talk with a journalist who followed the CDC's flu hunters, a fascinating story. We're going to try to get that interview with her still and bring it to you in an upcoming program. We're going to keep you posted on that one.

And up next tonight, the Democrats in the dumps. Hear what some of them are saying about four more years of Mr. Bush, but first, here's Mark Shields to tell us what's ahead on "THE CAPITAL GANG."

Mark, good evening.

MARK SHIELDS, CO-HOST, "THE CAPITAL GANG": Hey, Carol, good to see you. But "THE CAPITAL GANG" will discuss a big win for Republicans and a disappointing loss for Democrats. George W. Bush's victory strengthened Republican control in both the House and the Senate. And we'll go beyond the Beltway to look at the Palestinians after Yasser Arafat.

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LIN: It's been a tough week for many people living in those so- called blue states. CNN's Jeanne Moos has that story we hope or not.

All right. That's all the time we have for this hour. Our apologies, we're having a couple of technical problems tonight.

Coming up next, "THE CAPITAL GANG" and then at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN PRESENTS," tonight, the mission of George W. Bush. AT 9:00, Larry King's got the first lady, Laura Bush. And I'm going to be back at 10:00 Eastern tonight to the upcoming "Dallas" reunion show. I'm not talking about the White House. I'm talking about the TV show. Remember that one? I'm going to talk to one of the stars.

But right now, here's what's happening right now in the news. But first, we're going to go to Jeanne Moos on the blue state blues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a sentence that makes voters in the blue states feel sentenced to...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four more years of President Bush.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't mention the election to me.

MOOS (on camera): Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I am emotionally disturbed about the election.

MOOS (voice-over): What's the state of mind in the blue states?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feel my blues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so, so blue. I'm depressed. I really was...

MOOS (on camera): Clinically?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, not clinically. MOOS (voice-over): New Yorkers are sounding inconsolable even on voice mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, you, it's me. I still can't believe this. Oh, my God.

MOOS: A listing reportedly from the online marketplace, Craig's List, reads, "Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair physical fight to vent my anger."

Democracy Plaza is more like depression plaza. And that clever idea of turning the skating rink into an electoral map?

(on camera): You see those maps with the red all across of America and then on the edges, the blue states?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes us feel like you don't want to travel across the country. That -- you know that it's a different territory.

MOOS: You can always fly over it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can fly over it, but you don't want to go through there. And that they're completely different. And you don't know who these people are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel angry at Americans. I don't understand the mentality of a country. So much red to me indicates so little tolerance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to move to, like, a different country.

MOOS (voice-over): But don't pack your bags for Canada yet. Canadian officials made it clear fed up Americans would have to wait like other immigrants. "You just can't come into Canada and say, I'm going to stay here."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not moving, but I'm cursing a lot.

MOOS: Jokesters on the web have been adding new provinces to Canada. The United States of Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe in the next four years I'll move, but not to a red state I assure you that.

MOOS: As for the president...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really think that he did a wonderful job of scaring the hell out of people in this country.

MOOS: It figures that a New York-based comedy show would pick up on the red/blue divide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We in New York are too close to the terrorism and the gay people. Only the red states with the advantage of a safe distance can take in the whole picture.

MOOS: But not every blue state voter is seeing red over the president's re-election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God told me he brought Bush and you're going to see what is going to happen...

MOOS (on camera): Wait a minute, God told you he brought Bush?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God, yes. I've seen Jesus Christ. He told me he put Bush in power, OK? So -- and now...

MOOS: Well, that's better than an exit poll.

(voice-over): Despite Senator Kerry's concession, there's no talk of cessation, just the blue state blues.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Could it really be all that bad? All right, well, more with Mark Shields and THE CAPITAL GANG, a perfect segway. I'm Carol Lin. I'll see you on the news on the hour.

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