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Preparing For The Democratic National Convention; Edwards Campaigns In North Carolina; Al-Jazeera Covers DNC; Google Slowdown; Missing Runner Update

Aired July 26, 2004 - 14:00 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.

MILES O'BRIEN: Live pictures of Boston -- convention countdown to tell you about. Democrats are just two hours away from starting their push to sway undecided voters in a very tight race.
John Kerry with a pre-convention swing through Florida: Could this state once again play the spoiler?

New video to tell you about: search for the missing Utah woman. Investigators focusing on a Dumpster, which could contain clues.

And they were once prized pets of Saddam Hussein's son. Now, these lions are headed for a different home. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien -- Kyra Phillips off today. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

And we begin this hour with balloons and bluster and bomb- sniffing dogs. Fired up delegates and a full slate of former, current, and maybe future VIPs. It's the DNC, the Democratic National Convention. And the conventional wisdom is this: maximum Kerry, maximum security, minimal mud.

CNN's squeaky-clean Bob Franken is our man at the FleetCenter -- never one to engage in mud slinging. Hello, Mr. Franken.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Hey, the person who's talking in my ear, I'm also hearing...

O'BRIEN: Bob Franken...

FRANKEN: But we are now at the event here. And the one thing I wanted to point out, Miles -- we're having some technical difficulties. But watch this miraculous recovery. The Democrats are now trying to put together an event where the emphasis is on what goes on in the hall as opposed to what goes on inside. It's just a short time from now that they're going to be showing the event here in the hall with the Democrats beginning their convention.

It's a convention that, of course, the story thus far has been the massive security outside. We wanted to show you that. The security outside is going to be an event that is just...

O'BRIEN: Bob Franken, are you there? Can you hear me, Mr. Franken?

FRANKEN: I can hear you. I'm not quite sure whether we're on the air or not.

O'BRIEN: You actually are on the air, and you're doing an admirable job. Let's continue on that subject of security, because there's been so much said about how all of this security potentially could bottle up what is perfectly legitimate protest, which we would welcome in our democracy. Are they walking that tightrope there?

FRANKEN: Well, I think, first of all, the security seems to have done very well in stopping some of the electrons from coming to this booth. But the truth of the matter is that the protesters were already under extreme restrictions. The City of Boston had set up what they're calling a "holding pen." They're calling it an "internment camp."

It is an area that is so restricted that the protesters are saying they're not going to operate from there. Even the judge who said the city could do that said that it was really an inappropriate way to do things in a free society.

But the security is massive, and the larger problem has to do with the national security event declaration that they have designated the convention here, the reason being that there is such a fear of a highly visible terrorist attack against the United States, and this could be an ideal setting. So, there are thousands upon thousands of security forces.

The security forces include the coordinators, the Secret Service, they include the military. There are military police all over the place from the National Guard, and of course, just about every local, state, and federal police organization you can find. You go one step to the next, and you can expect to go through a magnetometer and have your bags searched. But they believe that that is the only way that they can do things.

Now, onto the story that the Democrats are interested in: what goes on in this hall. And tonight, the story is going to mainly be Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is one of the former presidents speaking tonight -- the other one, Jimmy Carter. He'll be introduced by his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, and also will be on the playbill with Al Gore. You can talk about that more in a moment.

But Bill Clinton is the person that everybody worries would overshadow John Kerry -- everybody who's a Democrat, in any case. So, he is speaking on Monday. John Kerry's speaking on Thursday. You can see that the bigger the separation the better as far as John Kerry is concerned. The whole message, everybody who speaks, is going to be positive, positive, positive.

There's been a tactical decision made by the Democrats that they're not going to turn this into a hate fest, the George W. Bush hate fest, or at least one that the Republicans could characterize that way. Now, Republicans, they're here to do whatever damage they can. They've set up their own shop here, similar to what the Democrats will do when the Republicans get together in New York next month. So, what we're going to have here is the usual political show embellished, hugely embellished by a massive security effort outside -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken joining us on and off the air, in some cases. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Good work.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will introduce her husband, former President Bill Clinton, tonight. On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" earlier today, she said Democrats are more united than ever before. You getting this theme now? And she called for a changing of the guard at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I am so excited about replacing this administration. You know, I think that the Bush-Cheney presidency has been bad for America and bad for the world. I cannot wait to see them leave the White House. The sooner the better. I wish we could move the inauguration up a few months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: And Mrs. Clinton has a three-word reaction to a two- word suggestion by Teresa Heinz Kerry to a persistent journalist. Mrs. Clinton said, "You go, girl." And we take you back to a convention-eve reception for the Democratic delegates from Heinz Kerry's home state of Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: We need to turn back some of the creepy, un-Pennsylvanian and, sometimes, un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right, you heard what she said, "un-American traits." Now, moments later, the editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, a conservative paper there, asked for a clarification of those comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN MCNICKLE, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW: ... you mentioned "un-American"...

HEINZ KERRY: No, I didn't say that.

MCNICKLE: What did you mean?

HEINZ KERRY: I didn't say that.

MCNICKLE: What did you say?

HEINZ KERRY: I didn't say that. MCNICKLE: I'm just asking you what you said.

HEINZ KERRY: Well, why'd you put those words in my mouth?

MCNICKLE: You said something about un-American... activities...

HEINZ KERRY: No, I didn't say that. I did not say "activity" or "un-American." Those are your words. You can report the news...

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. She didn't say "activity," but she did, in fact, say "un-American." We heard that. And she had a little something else to offer up as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEINZ KERRY: ... interview -- of course.

MCNICKLE: Come here.

HEINZ KERRY: Understandable. You said something I didn't say. Now, shove it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: OK, there you have it. The campaign calls that "a moment of extreme frustration aimed at a right-wing rag." Those are their words. The candidate himself says the missus, and we quote, "speaks her mind appropriately." Do you think Teresa Heinz Kerry helps or hurts her husband's campaign? Let us know. You've already sent us a passel of e-mails. We'll take a few more.

Once again, that address is livefrom@cnn.com. We will go through the mailbag, the virtual mailbag, a little later this hour.

There's something of a mystery afoot at the Democratic Convention this year. You might call it a case of the missing sign. The Arabic language newscaster Al-Jazeera is covering the convention. It's their first time ever.

They had their name up there. They rented a skybox like the other broadcasters. It seems that that is when the trouble started. The Democratic National Committee apparently ordered that it be removed. And even Al-Jazeera Washington Bureau Chief Hafiz al-Mirazi doesn't know where it went, as he explained Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAFIZ AL-MIRAZI, AL-JAZEERA, WASH. BUREAU CHIEF: We found that it disappeared for some reason. We contacted DNC and the people who are organizing the convention. Some showed some surprise as well. And then, they said it has been removed, maybe for lack of enough space or something like that, although they approved, originally, the sign and everything on it.

And every time, we get a different answer. And finally, they said, "Sorry, we cannot put it back."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now, vice presidential candidate John Edwards will arrive in Boston tomorrow. The North Carolina senator is in Raleigh today, campaigning and fine tuning the acceptance speech that he will deliver on Wednesday.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is with the candidate. Hello, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles. Good afternoon to you. We are told by officials here in Senator Edwards' home state of North Carolina that he is, in fact, spending the afternoon working on his acceptance speech. And yesterday, a senior campaign official said that that speech was close to being finished, and that the senator was making what they called subtle changes -- changes, for instance, in the language, in order to make it more comfortable for the senator.

But this morning, the senator did go out and have a chance to do some campaigning. He headed out to a healthcare information firm in an area of Raleigh that is known as "research triangle." It's home to a number of biotech firms. And while there, Senator Edwards brought up the issue of stem cell research, saying that he and John Kerry think that more work needs to be done, but is not currently under the Bush administration.

Now, the president has limited research to adult stem cell lines. But an aid to the Edwards campaign says that the Kerry-Edwards team supports using embryonic stem cells for therapeutic purposes. At the same time, though, Senator Edwards made clear that he and his running mate oppose human cloning. And he acknowledged today that it is a complex issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRES. CANDIDATE: We believe there's more work that can be done in stem cell research that's not being done -- both John Kerry and I, yes. Both of us believe in very strong and strict ethical standards, but there is so much good that can be done that's not presently being done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, as for Senator Edwards' schedule, he was originally supposed to appear at another event this afternoon, but it was canceled -- aides say, so that the senator could rest his voice. Now, in fact, during his remarks today, we actually heard his voice sound a bit strained, at times, raspy. We saw the senator cough and take a sip of water.

But aides say that he is doing just fine. This is simply a precaution. And as for his schedule tomorrow -- no public events tomorrow afternoon. He is scheduled to arrive in Boston ahead of his speech on Wednesday. Miles... O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano, thank you very much. Democrats say you can expect a positive tone to ring from the podium at FleetCenter this week. There will be scads of speeches. Which ones will matter most, you may ask? Let's go to New York and CNN Political Analyst Carlos Watson.

Whenever I hear all this talk, Carlos, about positive, it sort of sounds like boring to me.

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sounds like boring to a lot of people. Although, you know, there actually have been some intriguing, interesting speeches over the years at the conventions, sometimes for better or for worse -- Barry Goldwater's speech from 1964, extremism is still remembered -- certainly, Hubert Humphrey demanding that people pay attention in '68, and some of the other speeches on different sides of the aisle.

So, I think you'll hear some good speeches. And I'll tell you the one I'm most interested in hearing tonight is Al Gore.

O'BRIEN: OK. Now, why Al Gore? Al Gore is clearly off the leash, shall we say, right? He has been like a junkyard dog. And I suppose there are a lot of Gore supporters out there who say, "Gee, why didn't you try that four years ago?"

WATSON: Well, you know, he feels maybe a little unleashed, a little unshackled. He's saying what he thinks. And certainly, he's had some very hard-hitting, some very stinging critiques, particularly on the foreign policy side of the Bush administration.

And so, tonight, it will be interesting, given that they say they want to have an upbeat, a positive, a forward looking tone -- will, though, Gore play the bad cop, if you will, and allow Clinton and maybe, to some extent, Carter to play the good cop?

I'm going to be very interested to hear his speech and hear how it's received.

O'BRIEN: In touch with his inner Dean, perhaps, right? Let's talk about Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, of course, just has marquee value for Democrats -- sort of his presence on stage. But he can be terrible at speeches. I mean, he could be talking until morning if they didn't have a little red light blinking there on the podium.

WATSON: Well, he's never been afraid to speak for a long time, and yet, lots of people tune in. The last time around, in 2000, some 23 million people tuned in when he spoke, only slightly less than the number of people who tuned into Al Gore, who had a little bit under 25 million.

So, if you're going to kick off your convention, if you want people to watch the whole week, you've got to kick it off with a big name. He's the only two-term winner they have in the party, and he's the one most likely to make the case that the Democrats are an innovative, centrist party. But you're right, the question is, will he go on beyond 11 PM, and therefore miss the local newscasts in lots of East Coast markets?

O'BRIEN: That's important. All right, Hillary Clinton, who will introduce her husband, an important moment for her because, potentially, she's laying the groundwork for her own bid for the Oval Office down the road.

WATSON: She is. And you know another interesting thing to watch for is not just kind of the audition, which goes on always, but where will they ultimately use her to campaign, Miles? In other words, given her speech and given the kind of reception she gets both in the audience hall but also outside of it in local newspapers, will they come out of here and say, "You know what? We've got a real asset, and we should use her to campaign in Florida, we should use her in the West Coast and some of the battle states like Oregon and Washington. Maybe we should use her in the Northeast."

One of the things that follows not just out of the speeches received in Boston, but outside of it, and consequently, where does a campaign decide to use certain speakers as surrogates?

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about Bill Richardson. Will his speech be one worth watching tonight, do you think?

WATSON: Well, perfect segue. He's another guy who, besides in New Mexico, which was decided by 366 votes last time -- that's right, 366 -- so he'll campaign there -- you know, coming out of here, we'll probably see him campaign in Arizona, another battleground state -- Colorado. We'll see him campaign in Nevada.

But depending on how well he does, and how well Kerry does or doesn't do, this is a guy who you could see campaigning for his own nomination four years from now in 2008, running for the presidency.

O'BRIEN: It might be more efficient just to take all 366 people out for dinner or something.

WATSON: It depends on what you're buying.

O'BRIEN: All right, final thought: rising stars. There's always somebody who kind of catches us off guard a little bit. Do you anticipate any rising stars? Will we see one tonight or something this week?

WATSON: I think we can see some folks later this week. Now, certainly, we know about Barack Obama, because I think, Miles, we may have been the first national show -- you, Kyra, and I -- to talk about him. And since then, he obviously has become the keynote speaker.

O'BRIEN: Thanks for the plug, by the way. Appreciate that.

WATSON: You and Kyra make it happen.

O'BRIEN: Press on...

WATSON: A couple other interesting people -- there's a Congresswoman from Wisconsin, Tami Baldwin, who will speak tonight -- worth taking note of her. Another Congresswoman from Ohio, Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Is she a future U.S. Senate candidate? Worth staying tuned to that, as well.

And there are a couple of new governors who, down the road, could play a bigger role -- Janet Napolitano of Arizona, who speaks tomorrow, and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Both of them won close races in heavily Republican states and, down the road, could put forward their own bid for the presidency or maybe even a cabinet position. So a number of people to look out for.

O'BRIEN: All right, Carlos Watson, I know you'll be watching it stem to stern, naturally. The rest of us might accept a TiVo or something. But we do appreciate a little viewing guide from you. We'll check in with you as the week progresses, OK?

WATSON: And CNN's the place to watch it. We're going 24/7.

O'BRIEN: Did I neglect to say that?

WATSON: Who knows, who knows?

O'BRIEN: I did neglect to say that. Thank you, Carlos. CNN is the place to watch this. All right, we appreciate it. We'll see you later.

All right, have you Googled today? Don't try right now. The popular search engine -- not just the popular search engine -- "the" search engine is apparently down. Well, it's having a bad day or something. And all this on the day it announces the asking price for its initial public offering.

And on the edge, the morning commute teeters on the edge of disaster in the Florida Keys. We're all on the edge ahead on LIVE FROM, so stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, the FleetCenter, Boston, Massachusetts -- probably does not need any introduction, I hope not, for most of you -- the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter there, his back to us right now, center screen, getting a lay of the land for the podium, checking out the teleprompter, seeing where the microphone is, knowing which way to walk, all that good stuff.

He is slated to speak at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, among 40-some- odd speakers today, all beginning at 4:00. And of course, CNN is the place to catch all of this.

Now, we've been talking about Google today. Google is the ultimate search engine, number one by a long shot. By some, perhaps, coincidence today, its IPO price was released on Wall Street -- big initial public offering. And this is what you get on that very day if you go to Google -- server error. I did it earlier, and then my whole computer froze up. I don't know if that's a coincidence either. Here to unravel this rather tangled web, if you know what I mean...

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I get it, Miles -- web.

O'BRIEN: Dan Sieberg, who is our computer guy.

SIEBERG: Here's the thing. We have to be careful here, because it's very early on in what's happening here, and so we don't know as much as we know, if that makes sense. There's a lot of unknowns here in this case.

But starting about 11:30 Eastern, we had some reports that people could not get onto Google's site, that they were getting that error message that you saw, saying they couldn't conduct a search.

They could pull up Google's main page, but then, when they went to do a search, this is what they saw. As Miles pointed out, Google is the largest search engine on the Internet, about 250 million searches per day. And so, for the past few hours, we're talking about tens of millions of searches that haven't been able to have been conducted.

Why is this all happening? Well, there has been some speculation on why. One of the most recent theories, if you will, comes from the Sands Institute, the Internet storm center there, and they are saying this could be linked to a new version of the My.Doom virus.

It is going through people's computers, it could get onto your computer. It's then using search engines like Google, Yahoo, Lycos and others to try and find other e-mail addresses to send itself out to.

So, by doing that, it is overloading or possibly overwhelming some of these search engine sites. Now, that's very rare, because this type of attack -- usually companies, especially the size of Google, can handle these types of attacks.

So, there's no certainty that this is what's happening. It's a little bit like trying to be a crime scene investigator before you have all the facts, Miles. So, it's very early on in all this.

O'BRIEN: I'm just going to take a wild guess and say Google, right now, is not talking. They're a little busy trying to deal with this.

SIEBERG: They are. We have talked to Google. I talked to Google. And they are saying they're aware of the problem. They don't know necessarily how widespread it is. And the only company that can confirm or deny this definitively one way or the other is Google. A lot of this could be happening internally, or any of these other companies that could be affected by this.

We simply can only speculate or look at what some of the other evidence is that's out there. But this type of thing really is very rare. Google has not had an outage like this or not been available in its history that we're aware of. So, it's certainly a rare occurrence.

O'BRIEN: All right, when people hear My.Doom and the possibility of that worm or virus getting on your computer, they get very nervous. Is simply the act of going to Google, does that expose your computer to a virus?

SIEBERG: Well, it seems as though going to Google is unrelated. That's part of it. But the virus is, at least according to this report from Sands, is being spread through e-mail. So it's not that by going to Google you're getting the virus -- at least according to this report again -- it's that that's a sort of a byproduct, if you will, of getting this virus, that it's using your computer to go to these search engines at a very rapid rate and causing them to slow down.

Now again, that's a possibility. I tried Yahoo this morning, and I was able to get onto Yahoo. At times, it was very sporadic. Some people we've talked to outside of the company here say, "It's no problem. I've been using Google all day, and it's been fine." So it's very tough to say. But that can happen with this type of attack. Some people can get in, some people just experience delays. It really depends on where you are and what Internet service provider you're using.

O'BRIEN: All right, Dan Sieberg, keep surfing for us.

SIEBERG: Yes, we certainly will. And, of course, this IPO today, leading everybody to speculate that it may not be a coincidence that they're suffering all these problems -- that somebody may be unhappy about all that. But again, maybe a little too early to say.

O'BRIEN: All right. Come back and check in with us in a bit, let us know how things are going.

SIEBERG: All right.

O'BRIEN: Appreciate it. News across America now: President Bush is mulling over the 9/11 report at his Texas ranch. His is considering more than 40 proposals for revamping domestic security. A senior administration official says the president's expected to adopt the recommendations within days.

Hanging by a thread: dramatic pictures of a tractor trailer accident on a bridge in the Florida Keys today. It was literally held in place by the rear tire, hooked onto the guardrail. One person was injured. We should tell you the cab of the truck didn't go over the side. You can see it there. A crane had to lift the trailer off the bridge.

A shark attack in Texas: An 11-year-old boy in guarded condition today after being bitten by a shark last night near Freeport. The boy was wade fishing in the Gulf with his family when he was bitten on his arm and on his leg. Well, it's been a week now since Lori Hacking vanished. The search for the missing pregnant woman resumed today in Salt Lake City, and new details are emerging about the investigation and the hunt for evidence.

Our Ted Rowlands is there, and he has been working very hard with his sources. Hello, Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Hello, Miles. You're right, investigators continue to search for potential evidence here, and searchers continue to search for Lori Hacking. It has been exactly one week since Lori Hacking was reported missing by her husband, Mark.

Now, at this hour, Salt Lake City police detectives are checking out a Dumpster, which is located just outside one of the entrances to the hospital facility that Mark Hacking worked at, and we believe is still at, receiving care. He was admitted into the hospital on Monday night after his family said he had what they're referring to as a breakdown, and has been there ever since.

The family, of course, says they love Mark Hacking, but they too say they want some of their questions answered by him. They're letting the police get to it. As for the police, they are not saying one way or another on a local newspaper report about a bloodstained knife with strands of hair that was reportedly pulled from the hacking home.

They are saying that there is significant physical evidence, and they are waiting for forensic test results. And they say, if the forensic results are what they believe they are that an arrest warrant could follow very quickly. Meanwhile, family and friends here gathered together, hundreds of them last night, for a very emotional candlelight vigil -- a lot of people wondering what happened to Lori Hacking.

Investigators say those test results should come back sometime early this week -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ted Rowlands, thank you very much. A few moments ago, we showed you Teresa Heinz Kerry's not so polite suggestion to a local reporter. What do you think about it? Is she helping or hurting her husband's race for the White House? E-mail us, livefrom@cnn.com. No worries about viruses there. We'll have some of your comments a little later this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST: I'm Richard Quest at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Why is John Kerry among the rockets? I'll tell you in a moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: All right, that's the FleetCenter, live pictures. But we've been telling you a little bit about Google, that search engine of great magnitude, the biggest, is sputtering a little bit today.

Is this a bad omen, perhaps, for the company's stock offering?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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Aired July 26, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN: Live pictures of Boston -- convention countdown to tell you about. Democrats are just two hours away from starting their push to sway undecided voters in a very tight race.
John Kerry with a pre-convention swing through Florida: Could this state once again play the spoiler?

New video to tell you about: search for the missing Utah woman. Investigators focusing on a Dumpster, which could contain clues.

And they were once prized pets of Saddam Hussein's son. Now, these lions are headed for a different home. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien -- Kyra Phillips off today. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

And we begin this hour with balloons and bluster and bomb- sniffing dogs. Fired up delegates and a full slate of former, current, and maybe future VIPs. It's the DNC, the Democratic National Convention. And the conventional wisdom is this: maximum Kerry, maximum security, minimal mud.

CNN's squeaky-clean Bob Franken is our man at the FleetCenter -- never one to engage in mud slinging. Hello, Mr. Franken.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Hey, the person who's talking in my ear, I'm also hearing...

O'BRIEN: Bob Franken...

FRANKEN: But we are now at the event here. And the one thing I wanted to point out, Miles -- we're having some technical difficulties. But watch this miraculous recovery. The Democrats are now trying to put together an event where the emphasis is on what goes on in the hall as opposed to what goes on inside. It's just a short time from now that they're going to be showing the event here in the hall with the Democrats beginning their convention.

It's a convention that, of course, the story thus far has been the massive security outside. We wanted to show you that. The security outside is going to be an event that is just...

O'BRIEN: Bob Franken, are you there? Can you hear me, Mr. Franken?

FRANKEN: I can hear you. I'm not quite sure whether we're on the air or not.

O'BRIEN: You actually are on the air, and you're doing an admirable job. Let's continue on that subject of security, because there's been so much said about how all of this security potentially could bottle up what is perfectly legitimate protest, which we would welcome in our democracy. Are they walking that tightrope there?

FRANKEN: Well, I think, first of all, the security seems to have done very well in stopping some of the electrons from coming to this booth. But the truth of the matter is that the protesters were already under extreme restrictions. The City of Boston had set up what they're calling a "holding pen." They're calling it an "internment camp."

It is an area that is so restricted that the protesters are saying they're not going to operate from there. Even the judge who said the city could do that said that it was really an inappropriate way to do things in a free society.

But the security is massive, and the larger problem has to do with the national security event declaration that they have designated the convention here, the reason being that there is such a fear of a highly visible terrorist attack against the United States, and this could be an ideal setting. So, there are thousands upon thousands of security forces.

The security forces include the coordinators, the Secret Service, they include the military. There are military police all over the place from the National Guard, and of course, just about every local, state, and federal police organization you can find. You go one step to the next, and you can expect to go through a magnetometer and have your bags searched. But they believe that that is the only way that they can do things.

Now, onto the story that the Democrats are interested in: what goes on in this hall. And tonight, the story is going to mainly be Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is one of the former presidents speaking tonight -- the other one, Jimmy Carter. He'll be introduced by his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, and also will be on the playbill with Al Gore. You can talk about that more in a moment.

But Bill Clinton is the person that everybody worries would overshadow John Kerry -- everybody who's a Democrat, in any case. So, he is speaking on Monday. John Kerry's speaking on Thursday. You can see that the bigger the separation the better as far as John Kerry is concerned. The whole message, everybody who speaks, is going to be positive, positive, positive.

There's been a tactical decision made by the Democrats that they're not going to turn this into a hate fest, the George W. Bush hate fest, or at least one that the Republicans could characterize that way. Now, Republicans, they're here to do whatever damage they can. They've set up their own shop here, similar to what the Democrats will do when the Republicans get together in New York next month. So, what we're going to have here is the usual political show embellished, hugely embellished by a massive security effort outside -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken joining us on and off the air, in some cases. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Good work.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will introduce her husband, former President Bill Clinton, tonight. On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" earlier today, she said Democrats are more united than ever before. You getting this theme now? And she called for a changing of the guard at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I am so excited about replacing this administration. You know, I think that the Bush-Cheney presidency has been bad for America and bad for the world. I cannot wait to see them leave the White House. The sooner the better. I wish we could move the inauguration up a few months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: And Mrs. Clinton has a three-word reaction to a two- word suggestion by Teresa Heinz Kerry to a persistent journalist. Mrs. Clinton said, "You go, girl." And we take you back to a convention-eve reception for the Democratic delegates from Heinz Kerry's home state of Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: We need to turn back some of the creepy, un-Pennsylvanian and, sometimes, un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right, you heard what she said, "un-American traits." Now, moments later, the editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, a conservative paper there, asked for a clarification of those comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN MCNICKLE, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW: ... you mentioned "un-American"...

HEINZ KERRY: No, I didn't say that.

MCNICKLE: What did you mean?

HEINZ KERRY: I didn't say that.

MCNICKLE: What did you say?

HEINZ KERRY: I didn't say that. MCNICKLE: I'm just asking you what you said.

HEINZ KERRY: Well, why'd you put those words in my mouth?

MCNICKLE: You said something about un-American... activities...

HEINZ KERRY: No, I didn't say that. I did not say "activity" or "un-American." Those are your words. You can report the news...

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. She didn't say "activity," but she did, in fact, say "un-American." We heard that. And she had a little something else to offer up as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEINZ KERRY: ... interview -- of course.

MCNICKLE: Come here.

HEINZ KERRY: Understandable. You said something I didn't say. Now, shove it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: OK, there you have it. The campaign calls that "a moment of extreme frustration aimed at a right-wing rag." Those are their words. The candidate himself says the missus, and we quote, "speaks her mind appropriately." Do you think Teresa Heinz Kerry helps or hurts her husband's campaign? Let us know. You've already sent us a passel of e-mails. We'll take a few more.

Once again, that address is livefrom@cnn.com. We will go through the mailbag, the virtual mailbag, a little later this hour.

There's something of a mystery afoot at the Democratic Convention this year. You might call it a case of the missing sign. The Arabic language newscaster Al-Jazeera is covering the convention. It's their first time ever.

They had their name up there. They rented a skybox like the other broadcasters. It seems that that is when the trouble started. The Democratic National Committee apparently ordered that it be removed. And even Al-Jazeera Washington Bureau Chief Hafiz al-Mirazi doesn't know where it went, as he explained Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAFIZ AL-MIRAZI, AL-JAZEERA, WASH. BUREAU CHIEF: We found that it disappeared for some reason. We contacted DNC and the people who are organizing the convention. Some showed some surprise as well. And then, they said it has been removed, maybe for lack of enough space or something like that, although they approved, originally, the sign and everything on it.

And every time, we get a different answer. And finally, they said, "Sorry, we cannot put it back."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now, vice presidential candidate John Edwards will arrive in Boston tomorrow. The North Carolina senator is in Raleigh today, campaigning and fine tuning the acceptance speech that he will deliver on Wednesday.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is with the candidate. Hello, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles. Good afternoon to you. We are told by officials here in Senator Edwards' home state of North Carolina that he is, in fact, spending the afternoon working on his acceptance speech. And yesterday, a senior campaign official said that that speech was close to being finished, and that the senator was making what they called subtle changes -- changes, for instance, in the language, in order to make it more comfortable for the senator.

But this morning, the senator did go out and have a chance to do some campaigning. He headed out to a healthcare information firm in an area of Raleigh that is known as "research triangle." It's home to a number of biotech firms. And while there, Senator Edwards brought up the issue of stem cell research, saying that he and John Kerry think that more work needs to be done, but is not currently under the Bush administration.

Now, the president has limited research to adult stem cell lines. But an aid to the Edwards campaign says that the Kerry-Edwards team supports using embryonic stem cells for therapeutic purposes. At the same time, though, Senator Edwards made clear that he and his running mate oppose human cloning. And he acknowledged today that it is a complex issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRES. CANDIDATE: We believe there's more work that can be done in stem cell research that's not being done -- both John Kerry and I, yes. Both of us believe in very strong and strict ethical standards, but there is so much good that can be done that's not presently being done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, as for Senator Edwards' schedule, he was originally supposed to appear at another event this afternoon, but it was canceled -- aides say, so that the senator could rest his voice. Now, in fact, during his remarks today, we actually heard his voice sound a bit strained, at times, raspy. We saw the senator cough and take a sip of water.

But aides say that he is doing just fine. This is simply a precaution. And as for his schedule tomorrow -- no public events tomorrow afternoon. He is scheduled to arrive in Boston ahead of his speech on Wednesday. Miles... O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano, thank you very much. Democrats say you can expect a positive tone to ring from the podium at FleetCenter this week. There will be scads of speeches. Which ones will matter most, you may ask? Let's go to New York and CNN Political Analyst Carlos Watson.

Whenever I hear all this talk, Carlos, about positive, it sort of sounds like boring to me.

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sounds like boring to a lot of people. Although, you know, there actually have been some intriguing, interesting speeches over the years at the conventions, sometimes for better or for worse -- Barry Goldwater's speech from 1964, extremism is still remembered -- certainly, Hubert Humphrey demanding that people pay attention in '68, and some of the other speeches on different sides of the aisle.

So, I think you'll hear some good speeches. And I'll tell you the one I'm most interested in hearing tonight is Al Gore.

O'BRIEN: OK. Now, why Al Gore? Al Gore is clearly off the leash, shall we say, right? He has been like a junkyard dog. And I suppose there are a lot of Gore supporters out there who say, "Gee, why didn't you try that four years ago?"

WATSON: Well, you know, he feels maybe a little unleashed, a little unshackled. He's saying what he thinks. And certainly, he's had some very hard-hitting, some very stinging critiques, particularly on the foreign policy side of the Bush administration.

And so, tonight, it will be interesting, given that they say they want to have an upbeat, a positive, a forward looking tone -- will, though, Gore play the bad cop, if you will, and allow Clinton and maybe, to some extent, Carter to play the good cop?

I'm going to be very interested to hear his speech and hear how it's received.

O'BRIEN: In touch with his inner Dean, perhaps, right? Let's talk about Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, of course, just has marquee value for Democrats -- sort of his presence on stage. But he can be terrible at speeches. I mean, he could be talking until morning if they didn't have a little red light blinking there on the podium.

WATSON: Well, he's never been afraid to speak for a long time, and yet, lots of people tune in. The last time around, in 2000, some 23 million people tuned in when he spoke, only slightly less than the number of people who tuned into Al Gore, who had a little bit under 25 million.

So, if you're going to kick off your convention, if you want people to watch the whole week, you've got to kick it off with a big name. He's the only two-term winner they have in the party, and he's the one most likely to make the case that the Democrats are an innovative, centrist party. But you're right, the question is, will he go on beyond 11 PM, and therefore miss the local newscasts in lots of East Coast markets?

O'BRIEN: That's important. All right, Hillary Clinton, who will introduce her husband, an important moment for her because, potentially, she's laying the groundwork for her own bid for the Oval Office down the road.

WATSON: She is. And you know another interesting thing to watch for is not just kind of the audition, which goes on always, but where will they ultimately use her to campaign, Miles? In other words, given her speech and given the kind of reception she gets both in the audience hall but also outside of it in local newspapers, will they come out of here and say, "You know what? We've got a real asset, and we should use her to campaign in Florida, we should use her in the West Coast and some of the battle states like Oregon and Washington. Maybe we should use her in the Northeast."

One of the things that follows not just out of the speeches received in Boston, but outside of it, and consequently, where does a campaign decide to use certain speakers as surrogates?

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about Bill Richardson. Will his speech be one worth watching tonight, do you think?

WATSON: Well, perfect segue. He's another guy who, besides in New Mexico, which was decided by 366 votes last time -- that's right, 366 -- so he'll campaign there -- you know, coming out of here, we'll probably see him campaign in Arizona, another battleground state -- Colorado. We'll see him campaign in Nevada.

But depending on how well he does, and how well Kerry does or doesn't do, this is a guy who you could see campaigning for his own nomination four years from now in 2008, running for the presidency.

O'BRIEN: It might be more efficient just to take all 366 people out for dinner or something.

WATSON: It depends on what you're buying.

O'BRIEN: All right, final thought: rising stars. There's always somebody who kind of catches us off guard a little bit. Do you anticipate any rising stars? Will we see one tonight or something this week?

WATSON: I think we can see some folks later this week. Now, certainly, we know about Barack Obama, because I think, Miles, we may have been the first national show -- you, Kyra, and I -- to talk about him. And since then, he obviously has become the keynote speaker.

O'BRIEN: Thanks for the plug, by the way. Appreciate that.

WATSON: You and Kyra make it happen.

O'BRIEN: Press on...

WATSON: A couple other interesting people -- there's a Congresswoman from Wisconsin, Tami Baldwin, who will speak tonight -- worth taking note of her. Another Congresswoman from Ohio, Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Is she a future U.S. Senate candidate? Worth staying tuned to that, as well.

And there are a couple of new governors who, down the road, could play a bigger role -- Janet Napolitano of Arizona, who speaks tomorrow, and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Both of them won close races in heavily Republican states and, down the road, could put forward their own bid for the presidency or maybe even a cabinet position. So a number of people to look out for.

O'BRIEN: All right, Carlos Watson, I know you'll be watching it stem to stern, naturally. The rest of us might accept a TiVo or something. But we do appreciate a little viewing guide from you. We'll check in with you as the week progresses, OK?

WATSON: And CNN's the place to watch it. We're going 24/7.

O'BRIEN: Did I neglect to say that?

WATSON: Who knows, who knows?

O'BRIEN: I did neglect to say that. Thank you, Carlos. CNN is the place to watch this. All right, we appreciate it. We'll see you later.

All right, have you Googled today? Don't try right now. The popular search engine -- not just the popular search engine -- "the" search engine is apparently down. Well, it's having a bad day or something. And all this on the day it announces the asking price for its initial public offering.

And on the edge, the morning commute teeters on the edge of disaster in the Florida Keys. We're all on the edge ahead on LIVE FROM, so stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, the FleetCenter, Boston, Massachusetts -- probably does not need any introduction, I hope not, for most of you -- the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter there, his back to us right now, center screen, getting a lay of the land for the podium, checking out the teleprompter, seeing where the microphone is, knowing which way to walk, all that good stuff.

He is slated to speak at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, among 40-some- odd speakers today, all beginning at 4:00. And of course, CNN is the place to catch all of this.

Now, we've been talking about Google today. Google is the ultimate search engine, number one by a long shot. By some, perhaps, coincidence today, its IPO price was released on Wall Street -- big initial public offering. And this is what you get on that very day if you go to Google -- server error. I did it earlier, and then my whole computer froze up. I don't know if that's a coincidence either. Here to unravel this rather tangled web, if you know what I mean...

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I get it, Miles -- web.

O'BRIEN: Dan Sieberg, who is our computer guy.

SIEBERG: Here's the thing. We have to be careful here, because it's very early on in what's happening here, and so we don't know as much as we know, if that makes sense. There's a lot of unknowns here in this case.

But starting about 11:30 Eastern, we had some reports that people could not get onto Google's site, that they were getting that error message that you saw, saying they couldn't conduct a search.

They could pull up Google's main page, but then, when they went to do a search, this is what they saw. As Miles pointed out, Google is the largest search engine on the Internet, about 250 million searches per day. And so, for the past few hours, we're talking about tens of millions of searches that haven't been able to have been conducted.

Why is this all happening? Well, there has been some speculation on why. One of the most recent theories, if you will, comes from the Sands Institute, the Internet storm center there, and they are saying this could be linked to a new version of the My.Doom virus.

It is going through people's computers, it could get onto your computer. It's then using search engines like Google, Yahoo, Lycos and others to try and find other e-mail addresses to send itself out to.

So, by doing that, it is overloading or possibly overwhelming some of these search engine sites. Now, that's very rare, because this type of attack -- usually companies, especially the size of Google, can handle these types of attacks.

So, there's no certainty that this is what's happening. It's a little bit like trying to be a crime scene investigator before you have all the facts, Miles. So, it's very early on in all this.

O'BRIEN: I'm just going to take a wild guess and say Google, right now, is not talking. They're a little busy trying to deal with this.

SIEBERG: They are. We have talked to Google. I talked to Google. And they are saying they're aware of the problem. They don't know necessarily how widespread it is. And the only company that can confirm or deny this definitively one way or the other is Google. A lot of this could be happening internally, or any of these other companies that could be affected by this.

We simply can only speculate or look at what some of the other evidence is that's out there. But this type of thing really is very rare. Google has not had an outage like this or not been available in its history that we're aware of. So, it's certainly a rare occurrence.

O'BRIEN: All right, when people hear My.Doom and the possibility of that worm or virus getting on your computer, they get very nervous. Is simply the act of going to Google, does that expose your computer to a virus?

SIEBERG: Well, it seems as though going to Google is unrelated. That's part of it. But the virus is, at least according to this report from Sands, is being spread through e-mail. So it's not that by going to Google you're getting the virus -- at least according to this report again -- it's that that's a sort of a byproduct, if you will, of getting this virus, that it's using your computer to go to these search engines at a very rapid rate and causing them to slow down.

Now again, that's a possibility. I tried Yahoo this morning, and I was able to get onto Yahoo. At times, it was very sporadic. Some people we've talked to outside of the company here say, "It's no problem. I've been using Google all day, and it's been fine." So it's very tough to say. But that can happen with this type of attack. Some people can get in, some people just experience delays. It really depends on where you are and what Internet service provider you're using.

O'BRIEN: All right, Dan Sieberg, keep surfing for us.

SIEBERG: Yes, we certainly will. And, of course, this IPO today, leading everybody to speculate that it may not be a coincidence that they're suffering all these problems -- that somebody may be unhappy about all that. But again, maybe a little too early to say.

O'BRIEN: All right. Come back and check in with us in a bit, let us know how things are going.

SIEBERG: All right.

O'BRIEN: Appreciate it. News across America now: President Bush is mulling over the 9/11 report at his Texas ranch. His is considering more than 40 proposals for revamping domestic security. A senior administration official says the president's expected to adopt the recommendations within days.

Hanging by a thread: dramatic pictures of a tractor trailer accident on a bridge in the Florida Keys today. It was literally held in place by the rear tire, hooked onto the guardrail. One person was injured. We should tell you the cab of the truck didn't go over the side. You can see it there. A crane had to lift the trailer off the bridge.

A shark attack in Texas: An 11-year-old boy in guarded condition today after being bitten by a shark last night near Freeport. The boy was wade fishing in the Gulf with his family when he was bitten on his arm and on his leg. Well, it's been a week now since Lori Hacking vanished. The search for the missing pregnant woman resumed today in Salt Lake City, and new details are emerging about the investigation and the hunt for evidence.

Our Ted Rowlands is there, and he has been working very hard with his sources. Hello, Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Hello, Miles. You're right, investigators continue to search for potential evidence here, and searchers continue to search for Lori Hacking. It has been exactly one week since Lori Hacking was reported missing by her husband, Mark.

Now, at this hour, Salt Lake City police detectives are checking out a Dumpster, which is located just outside one of the entrances to the hospital facility that Mark Hacking worked at, and we believe is still at, receiving care. He was admitted into the hospital on Monday night after his family said he had what they're referring to as a breakdown, and has been there ever since.

The family, of course, says they love Mark Hacking, but they too say they want some of their questions answered by him. They're letting the police get to it. As for the police, they are not saying one way or another on a local newspaper report about a bloodstained knife with strands of hair that was reportedly pulled from the hacking home.

They are saying that there is significant physical evidence, and they are waiting for forensic test results. And they say, if the forensic results are what they believe they are that an arrest warrant could follow very quickly. Meanwhile, family and friends here gathered together, hundreds of them last night, for a very emotional candlelight vigil -- a lot of people wondering what happened to Lori Hacking.

Investigators say those test results should come back sometime early this week -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ted Rowlands, thank you very much. A few moments ago, we showed you Teresa Heinz Kerry's not so polite suggestion to a local reporter. What do you think about it? Is she helping or hurting her husband's race for the White House? E-mail us, livefrom@cnn.com. No worries about viruses there. We'll have some of your comments a little later this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST: I'm Richard Quest at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Why is John Kerry among the rockets? I'll tell you in a moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: All right, that's the FleetCenter, live pictures. But we've been telling you a little bit about Google, that search engine of great magnitude, the biggest, is sputtering a little bit today.

Is this a bad omen, perhaps, for the company's stock offering?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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