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American Morning
Pentagon Strongly Denying New Allegations in Prisoner Abuse Scandal; Situation in Iraq Continues to Take Toll on President Bush's Approval Numbers
Aired May 17, 2004 - 08:32 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
President Bush has seen a sudden slide in his approval ratings, primarily on what used to be his strongest issues, fighting terror and Iraq.
Bill Schneider standing by for us this morning to explain some of those numbers. Also he'll take a look at just how serious this is to the re-election campaign.
GUPTA: Also this hour, Sanjay filed a report comparing low-carb diets with those low-fat diets from years past. Are diets like the Atkins and South Beach just fads like the others? Or have Americans learned a healthier way to eat? We'll get to that in a moment.
O'BRIEN: First, out top stories, though, this morning. A suicide bombing in Iraq hitting at a checkpoint in central Baghdad overnight. The explosion left about four to six Iraqis dead, including the president of Iraq's Governing Council. Two U.S. soldiers are among the injured today.
The United States now among four countries in the world that recognize same-sex weddings. Take a look at these pictures coming to us from our affiliate WHDS out of Boston. This is Boston City Hall, where many same-sex couples have lined up, trying to get hitched today. They're applying for their wedding licenses across Massachusetts, which becomes the first state in the U.S. to allow gay couples to legally marry. The couples began actually lining up overnight.
India's stock market has taken the biggest plunge in its history, investors apparently panicked out of concern over how communist parties could affect the policy of Sonia Gandhi's incoming government. Party sources say Gandhi is meeting with India's president to stake her claim in becoming the country's next prime minister.
And fans of the popular sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" get to love him for another year. Ray Romano will be back for a ninth and final season of the Emmy Award-winning comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond," after CBS was able to strike a deal with the show producers It will be a shorter season though, just 16 episodes rather than the usual 22. He makes some ridiculous amount of money per episode on that.
HEMMER: That he does, you're right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: The Pentagon this morning strongly denying new allegations in the prisoner abuse scandal. In the current issue of "The New Yorker," investigator journalist Seymour Hirsch reports abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison resulting from a secret plan approved by the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. All this going back to Afghanistan, the fall of 2001.
Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, some strong words already today.
Good morning there.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, indeed, and what's very unusual, is the Pentagon is continuing today to issue statements, to make statements vehemently denying Seymour Hirsch's allegations in that "New Yorker" article.
Now we spoke a little while ago to Larry Dorita, who is the personal spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mr. Dorita already having issued a written statement over the weekend, continuing today to offer the Pentagon's view about that article. He says, quote, "This is the most hysterical piece of journalistic malpractice I have ever observed." And then he went on to say to me, quote, "There were 280,000 jobs created last month, and apparently, there is still a shortage of fact checkers at 'The New Yorker.'" So some very strong words from the Pentagon, denying that there was ever a program by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, approving coercive interrogation of detainees in Iraq.
But it's not all over, Bill. In fact, these allegations do continue, and there is every indication that Congress does plan to have more hearings into this matter to take a much closer look at what programs and policies were in place for interrogations of detainees in Iraq. And of course, the Pentagon still conducting some half dozen investigations on its own -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, if I could here, pick up on one other point here, you talked about prisons around the world, secret prisons being used. And in his article, he essentially reports that this group, this SAP, had free reign around the world to intersect whatever border it wanted to in whatever part of the world. It's my understanding there are rules in government that prohibit this going back several decades. How does the Pentagon respond to that part of the report?
STARR: Well, for the record, of course, the Pentagon says it does not comment on covert, or clandestine or even classified programs, they simply do not comment.
However, all indications have been since 9/11, since the war on terrorism began, there has been some loosening of the rules about where U.S. special forces, where U.S. CIA operatives go, how they cross national borders and go into other countries. For example, we know that some months ago a U.S.-run, if you will, predator drone aircraft crossed the border into Yemen and launched a successful airstrike against a group of suspected terrorists. There have been numerous cases where this type of thing has happened, where special forces have crossed into other national boundaries, into territories and grabbed suspects. We also know, of course, that there are a number of so-called high-value al Qaeda detainees being held around the world in undisclosed locations in conditions that no one is very aware of.
So, clearly, some of this does go on. The question on the table appears to be whether there was a sanctioned program inside Iraq which is a declared war, and a declared U.S. military occupation, which the Pentagon says does fall under a different group of rules -- Bill.
HEMMER: You're going to have a busy day. Barbara, thanks. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: The situation in Iraq continues to take a toll on President Bush's approval numbers. The latest "Newsweek" poll has the president's job approval rating at a record low 42 percent. And voters now appear less confident about his handling of the war on terrorism.
So what does it all mean for the Bush campaign? Senior political analyst Bill Schneider joining us from Washington D.C. This morning.
Good morning to you, Bill. Nice to see you as always.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Let's get right to it. Thank you.
I guess we would start, overall, with some of these numbers. If you look at some of the numbers coming out of these polling, it seems like it's almost even split. When they talk about how the president's handling terror, they say 46, good job, poor job, 47 percent, an even split. Is this a big problem for a president who is basically pitching himself as the president who's strong on terror?
SCHNEIDER: It certainly is, Soledad. President Bush has always argued that the war in Iraq is part of the war on terror. Now that argument may actually be backfiring against him, because Americans are so upset over what's happening in Iraq.
The problems he's facing in Iraq are driving down confidence in his leadership in the war on terror, and that is a very serious problem for this president, who always intended to run for re-election as a leader of the country and the world in the war on terror.
O'BRIEN: At the same time, as Bill Hemmer always points out, we got a long way to this election. Is it essentially going to be whatever happens in Iraq is going to determine how people feel about the job the president is doing?
SCHNEIDER: Well, that's certainly a paramount issue in this campaign. Right now, it's more or less defining the campaign. But John Kerry hopes that he can steer the campaign in the direction of domestic issues which are where he is consistently rated stronger than President Bush, even on the issue of taxes. Taxes are Bush's signature issue. But right now, Kerry has a small lead over Bush as the better candidate to handle the tax issue.
O'BRIEN: And in fact, there are lots of domestic areas in which Senator Kerry is doing better. Let's get to those in a moment, but I want to ask you about handling of Iraq before we move on -- 39 percent respondents say the president is doing a good job; 55 percent say a poor job. How bad is that number, 39 percent?
SCHNEIDER: Well, let's put it this way, President Bush's lowest ratings have always been on the economy. And that is the same rating now he gets in Iraq as he gets on the economy, which means Iraq is now down with the economy as one of his worst rated issues. It means Iraq doesn't help him. It in fact hurts him. It's pulling down, as we saw, his ratings on terrorism, and that is the one issue that President Bush has left.
Now of course, events can turn this campaign around in a minute. Anything can happen. Everyone hopes that very soon we will be able to get Osama bin Laden. Something like that would certainly turn this campaign around instantly, but the question is, can it be done in time to save the election?
O'BRIEN: Let's take a moment to talk a little bit about the key domestic issues. And in fact, if you look at this poll that shows who would do a better job on environment, employment, deficit, health care and the economy, really Senator Kerry, I mean, look at that, he is significantly ahead of President Bush. At the end of the day, many people say, in fact, elections are all about domestic issues. Do you agree with that, or do you think Iraq is such a big, looming issue that it's going to be a 50-50 split?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I put it this way, elections are always about domestic issues unless they're not. For a long time, some 30 or 40 years, from 1940 through 1972, they typically were not about domestic issues. They were about World War II, and the Cold War and war in Vietnam. If one of those issues, if Iraq reaches that proportion and becomes an obsession on the part of the electorate, which it is doing right now, then it could displace domestic issues.
What Senator Kerry is hoping is that he can neutralize President Bush's leadership on international affairs, and then beat him on domestic issues. But right now, Democrats have been nervous that Kerry isn't showing a huge lead over the president. But the fact is, at this stage in previous campaigns, even incumbents who ended up winning, like Ronald Reagan, who beat Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Bill Clinton, who beat the first President Bush in 1992, even they were losing to the incumbent this early in the campaign.
O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider. Can I quote you on that? I like that. It's always about domestic issues, except when it's not.
Appreciate that -- Bill. HEMMER: In a moment here, that low-carb diet you're on, is it just a fad or is it here to stay? Sanjay has that in a moment, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: If you follow dieting trends, then you know that low fat is out, low carb is in. As many as half of all Americans are said to be curbing their carbohydrates. And can you count Mr. Serwer and Mr. Hemmer among them.
In the first installment of his week-long series on the current low-carb craze, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has much more on carbs versus fat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Remember the days when it was low-fat everything? Well, it seems those days are gone. And perhaps for good reason. As a nation, we listened, dropping fat intake from about 40 percent in 1990 to 36 percent today, yet we still gained weight.
The problem is, while we paid attention to the low-fat, we forgot the golden rule -- low calorie. Our calorie consumption went up about 10 percent over the same period of time. And we may be making the same mistake about calories again with the low-carb diets. Sure, there are bad carbs like white bread and cake, as well as processed foods, but there are also good carbs, such as fruits a vegetables. There is even good fats, olives and nuts, to name a couple.
Whatever you end up eating, low-carb, low-fat or just a balanced meal, remember, watch those calories.
GUPTA (on camera): Here that-to-talk about the carbs versus fat debate, Heidi Skolnik. She's a nutritionist for the New York Giants and the school of American Ballet, Amy O'Connor, deputy editor of "Prevention" magazine, and Wahida Karmally, director of nutrition at the Irving Center of Columbia University Medical Center.
Thanks all of you for joining us. Why do people listen to these million diet gurus instead of doctors, do you think, Heidi?
HEIDI SKOLNIK, NUTRITIONIST, NEW YORK GIANTS: Well, I think everybody wants the quick fix. We get into this all or none thinking. It's with this low-carb, low-fat no-carb, no-fat, it's this all or gone.
GUPTA: We heard about the low-fat debate a lot. Is the low-carb debate going to be bigger debate than that, do you think? Is this bigger than what low-fat was 10, 15 years ago?
AMY O'CONNOR, DEPUTY EDITOR, "PREVENTION" MAGAZINE: You know low-fat was really big. I think people don't remember that. But the fact is that low-fat never meant low calories, and low-carb doesn't mean low calories. And the key to weight loss is cutting down on calories. GUPTA: You there was a study Wahida. It said, six months, low- carb may be a little bit better than low-fat in terms of losing weight, if that's your parameter. One year, it evened out. People hear that and they still want the low-carb diet. Why is that? Why all the fascination?
WAHIDA KARMALLY, COLUMBIA UNIV. MEDICAL CTR.: That's correct. Initially they get a jumpstart. They see a quick weight loss, and that's because they're having a low carbohydrate, and which has a diuretic effect on it, and when you choose a low carbohydrate, you also end up eating less calories. It's also a hypercaloric diet.
GUPTA: Is this here to stay, Heidi, do you think, low-carb diet? How much longer? Decades?
SKOLNIK: I can't predict how much longer, but I'd say that there's going to be a rebound eventually.
O'CONNOR: I do think there is a backlash coming, because people go on these diets, they lose weight, but they do gain it back. They just don't work long-term.
GUPTA: We've got a lot more coming up on this topic. Thanks all of your for joining us today.
Tomorrow we're going to talk about money and carbs. Low-carb diets mean big bucks for manufacturers. But is it really paying off in inches on your waist? Join us for the rest of the week for AMERICAN MORNING's low-carb craze series.
Back to you, Soledad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay, thank you very much.
And if having your own personal shopper just isn't enough, one store is making it even easier for their high-end clients. We'll explain just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. Back to Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I hope Mrs. Cafferty is not watching at this particularly moment.
I'm going to explain.
A personal shopper, that's not just enough for some folks anymore. There is even a better way to do this.
Andy Serwer's here with that and a market preview "Minding Your Business."
Good morning. ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Make it easier to rack up those credit card bills?
CAFFERTY: Oh, man, she doesn't need any help, do you know what I'm saying.
SERWER: Help is on the way, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Gold medal in shopping.
SERWER: Let's talk a little bit about the markets. Futures decidedly lower this morning. Why? Price of oil now a record $41.83 a barrel. A bombing in Iraq, of course. And also foreign markets getting roiled, especially in India. We'll talk about that in a second.
Meanwhile, in Asia, markets are down 5 percent, 7 percent, South Korean and Thailand, and that's big.
Here we got India, these are pictures -- here's a guy rioting in India on a cell phone, Jack. I like that. Here I am, I am rioting outside the stock exchange in India.
That's part of -- these are pictures from this morning. the Indian market down 11 percent. There is some concern there about the new government being formed being anti-business. And so that is really causing quite an uproar there.
Let's talk a little bit about Kmart, shall we?
CAFFERTY: OK, another good quarter.
SERWER: They did. What a year -- what a difference a year makes here. The swing is unbelievable. They reported a profit of $83 million. No big deal, except the last year they lost $892 million. Swing!
CAFFERTY: Every little bit helps.
SERWER: Yes, absolutely.
And now I want to talk about this phone story, OK. Macy's and Burdines (ph) down in Florida have a new system whereby your personal shopper will send you pictures and video clips of items that you might want to buy on your Sprint cell phone.
CAFFERTY: So you don't even have to leave the house.
SERWER: You don't have to go on the Internet. You just sit there and it's like, you hit the button, boom, I'm going to buy it.
CAFFERTY: You can sit home go shopping naked if you want.
SERWER: Yes, you know, I was going to think about that, sit home and shop naked.
CAFFERTY: I bought that sofa when I was naked.
SERWER: I never even thought about that.
You know Burdines down in Florida, you know how it got its start, 19th century, they started out selling clothes to soldiers in the Spanish-American War, going all the way back.
CAFFERTY: They came over here without any clothes?
SERWER: Yes, something like that. Well, they didn't have those phones. Naked.
CAFFERTY: Actually it's a good idea. It'll be probably very successful.
Time now for the -- where are we here? It's time -- there you are. It's time now for The Cafferty File.
Air America, the liberal talk show network. That would be Air America. They have a new product line for sale on the Internet. They got, you know, the usual stuff, stationary, mugs, T-shirts, bumper stickers. But then there are the not so usual things. That would be an Air America thong.
SERWER: No!
CAFFERTY: $15.99.
SERWER: Please remove that from the screen. Why are they keeping it up? OK.
CAFFERTY: Put it on backwards.
SERWER: I didn't like looking at that.
CAFFERTY: New York City, we have $99 hamburger. We're now home also to a $1,000 omelet. "The Daily News" reports this this morning. The Parker Meridian Hotel added the $1,000 omelet to their breakfast menu. It contains eggs, chives, butter cream, the usual stuff, also a lobster and 10 ounces of caviar. They've also created a poor man's version that you can get for $100. "The Daily News says that no one has ordered either one of these so far since they appeared on the menu May 5th. So they've been there half a month and no takers.
And finally, as we saw last weekend, in Kansas, tornado season is turning out more and more storm chasers. And according to "USA Today," these hardcore weather fans can be dangerous. They're now causing traffic jams on rural roads, which can prevent emergency crews from getting to the scene. The chasers include a wide range of people, from meteorology students to weather hobbyists to moron who pay thousands of dollars to go out and race around some country road risking getting killed by a tornado. I mean, you've got to have parts on order that haven't come in yet.
SERWER: Now wasn't that private caught up in the Iraqi prison scandal, didn't she want to be one? HEMMER: The pregnant woman.
SERWER: Yes, she wanted to be one.
HEMMER: Lynndie England.
SERWER: Yes, she wanted to be a storm chaser.
CAFFERTY: She might have been better off.
SERWER: She's kind of caught one, didn't she?
HEMMER: Yes, as a matter of fact.
You doing all right?
CAFFERTY: Am I doing all right?
HEMMER: Yes. You look great.
SERWER: Naked shopping?
O'BRIEN: That was whole other...
SERWER: Is that why you asked that question?
CAFFERTY: I mean, think about it now. Wouldn't that be nice, to be able to sit home? You're about to redecorate your apartment. Would you rather sit home and have somebody send you a...
O'BRIEN: Not shopping naked, just for...
CAFFERTY: Let's wait a few weeks.
O'BRIEN: None of my clothes actually fit anymore? Is that what you're saying.
HEMMER: Let's get a break. In a moment, we'll get you back to Iraq and that car bombing rocking the Iraqi capital today. What happens now? Reaction from a top Republican senator on what to do there in Iraq after this, on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Aired May 17, 2004 - 08:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
President Bush has seen a sudden slide in his approval ratings, primarily on what used to be his strongest issues, fighting terror and Iraq.
Bill Schneider standing by for us this morning to explain some of those numbers. Also he'll take a look at just how serious this is to the re-election campaign.
GUPTA: Also this hour, Sanjay filed a report comparing low-carb diets with those low-fat diets from years past. Are diets like the Atkins and South Beach just fads like the others? Or have Americans learned a healthier way to eat? We'll get to that in a moment.
O'BRIEN: First, out top stories, though, this morning. A suicide bombing in Iraq hitting at a checkpoint in central Baghdad overnight. The explosion left about four to six Iraqis dead, including the president of Iraq's Governing Council. Two U.S. soldiers are among the injured today.
The United States now among four countries in the world that recognize same-sex weddings. Take a look at these pictures coming to us from our affiliate WHDS out of Boston. This is Boston City Hall, where many same-sex couples have lined up, trying to get hitched today. They're applying for their wedding licenses across Massachusetts, which becomes the first state in the U.S. to allow gay couples to legally marry. The couples began actually lining up overnight.
India's stock market has taken the biggest plunge in its history, investors apparently panicked out of concern over how communist parties could affect the policy of Sonia Gandhi's incoming government. Party sources say Gandhi is meeting with India's president to stake her claim in becoming the country's next prime minister.
And fans of the popular sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" get to love him for another year. Ray Romano will be back for a ninth and final season of the Emmy Award-winning comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond," after CBS was able to strike a deal with the show producers It will be a shorter season though, just 16 episodes rather than the usual 22. He makes some ridiculous amount of money per episode on that.
HEMMER: That he does, you're right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: The Pentagon this morning strongly denying new allegations in the prisoner abuse scandal. In the current issue of "The New Yorker," investigator journalist Seymour Hirsch reports abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison resulting from a secret plan approved by the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. All this going back to Afghanistan, the fall of 2001.
Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, some strong words already today.
Good morning there.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, indeed, and what's very unusual, is the Pentagon is continuing today to issue statements, to make statements vehemently denying Seymour Hirsch's allegations in that "New Yorker" article.
Now we spoke a little while ago to Larry Dorita, who is the personal spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mr. Dorita already having issued a written statement over the weekend, continuing today to offer the Pentagon's view about that article. He says, quote, "This is the most hysterical piece of journalistic malpractice I have ever observed." And then he went on to say to me, quote, "There were 280,000 jobs created last month, and apparently, there is still a shortage of fact checkers at 'The New Yorker.'" So some very strong words from the Pentagon, denying that there was ever a program by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, approving coercive interrogation of detainees in Iraq.
But it's not all over, Bill. In fact, these allegations do continue, and there is every indication that Congress does plan to have more hearings into this matter to take a much closer look at what programs and policies were in place for interrogations of detainees in Iraq. And of course, the Pentagon still conducting some half dozen investigations on its own -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, if I could here, pick up on one other point here, you talked about prisons around the world, secret prisons being used. And in his article, he essentially reports that this group, this SAP, had free reign around the world to intersect whatever border it wanted to in whatever part of the world. It's my understanding there are rules in government that prohibit this going back several decades. How does the Pentagon respond to that part of the report?
STARR: Well, for the record, of course, the Pentagon says it does not comment on covert, or clandestine or even classified programs, they simply do not comment.
However, all indications have been since 9/11, since the war on terrorism began, there has been some loosening of the rules about where U.S. special forces, where U.S. CIA operatives go, how they cross national borders and go into other countries. For example, we know that some months ago a U.S.-run, if you will, predator drone aircraft crossed the border into Yemen and launched a successful airstrike against a group of suspected terrorists. There have been numerous cases where this type of thing has happened, where special forces have crossed into other national boundaries, into territories and grabbed suspects. We also know, of course, that there are a number of so-called high-value al Qaeda detainees being held around the world in undisclosed locations in conditions that no one is very aware of.
So, clearly, some of this does go on. The question on the table appears to be whether there was a sanctioned program inside Iraq which is a declared war, and a declared U.S. military occupation, which the Pentagon says does fall under a different group of rules -- Bill.
HEMMER: You're going to have a busy day. Barbara, thanks. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: The situation in Iraq continues to take a toll on President Bush's approval numbers. The latest "Newsweek" poll has the president's job approval rating at a record low 42 percent. And voters now appear less confident about his handling of the war on terrorism.
So what does it all mean for the Bush campaign? Senior political analyst Bill Schneider joining us from Washington D.C. This morning.
Good morning to you, Bill. Nice to see you as always.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Let's get right to it. Thank you.
I guess we would start, overall, with some of these numbers. If you look at some of the numbers coming out of these polling, it seems like it's almost even split. When they talk about how the president's handling terror, they say 46, good job, poor job, 47 percent, an even split. Is this a big problem for a president who is basically pitching himself as the president who's strong on terror?
SCHNEIDER: It certainly is, Soledad. President Bush has always argued that the war in Iraq is part of the war on terror. Now that argument may actually be backfiring against him, because Americans are so upset over what's happening in Iraq.
The problems he's facing in Iraq are driving down confidence in his leadership in the war on terror, and that is a very serious problem for this president, who always intended to run for re-election as a leader of the country and the world in the war on terror.
O'BRIEN: At the same time, as Bill Hemmer always points out, we got a long way to this election. Is it essentially going to be whatever happens in Iraq is going to determine how people feel about the job the president is doing?
SCHNEIDER: Well, that's certainly a paramount issue in this campaign. Right now, it's more or less defining the campaign. But John Kerry hopes that he can steer the campaign in the direction of domestic issues which are where he is consistently rated stronger than President Bush, even on the issue of taxes. Taxes are Bush's signature issue. But right now, Kerry has a small lead over Bush as the better candidate to handle the tax issue.
O'BRIEN: And in fact, there are lots of domestic areas in which Senator Kerry is doing better. Let's get to those in a moment, but I want to ask you about handling of Iraq before we move on -- 39 percent respondents say the president is doing a good job; 55 percent say a poor job. How bad is that number, 39 percent?
SCHNEIDER: Well, let's put it this way, President Bush's lowest ratings have always been on the economy. And that is the same rating now he gets in Iraq as he gets on the economy, which means Iraq is now down with the economy as one of his worst rated issues. It means Iraq doesn't help him. It in fact hurts him. It's pulling down, as we saw, his ratings on terrorism, and that is the one issue that President Bush has left.
Now of course, events can turn this campaign around in a minute. Anything can happen. Everyone hopes that very soon we will be able to get Osama bin Laden. Something like that would certainly turn this campaign around instantly, but the question is, can it be done in time to save the election?
O'BRIEN: Let's take a moment to talk a little bit about the key domestic issues. And in fact, if you look at this poll that shows who would do a better job on environment, employment, deficit, health care and the economy, really Senator Kerry, I mean, look at that, he is significantly ahead of President Bush. At the end of the day, many people say, in fact, elections are all about domestic issues. Do you agree with that, or do you think Iraq is such a big, looming issue that it's going to be a 50-50 split?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I put it this way, elections are always about domestic issues unless they're not. For a long time, some 30 or 40 years, from 1940 through 1972, they typically were not about domestic issues. They were about World War II, and the Cold War and war in Vietnam. If one of those issues, if Iraq reaches that proportion and becomes an obsession on the part of the electorate, which it is doing right now, then it could displace domestic issues.
What Senator Kerry is hoping is that he can neutralize President Bush's leadership on international affairs, and then beat him on domestic issues. But right now, Democrats have been nervous that Kerry isn't showing a huge lead over the president. But the fact is, at this stage in previous campaigns, even incumbents who ended up winning, like Ronald Reagan, who beat Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Bill Clinton, who beat the first President Bush in 1992, even they were losing to the incumbent this early in the campaign.
O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider. Can I quote you on that? I like that. It's always about domestic issues, except when it's not.
Appreciate that -- Bill. HEMMER: In a moment here, that low-carb diet you're on, is it just a fad or is it here to stay? Sanjay has that in a moment, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: If you follow dieting trends, then you know that low fat is out, low carb is in. As many as half of all Americans are said to be curbing their carbohydrates. And can you count Mr. Serwer and Mr. Hemmer among them.
In the first installment of his week-long series on the current low-carb craze, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has much more on carbs versus fat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Remember the days when it was low-fat everything? Well, it seems those days are gone. And perhaps for good reason. As a nation, we listened, dropping fat intake from about 40 percent in 1990 to 36 percent today, yet we still gained weight.
The problem is, while we paid attention to the low-fat, we forgot the golden rule -- low calorie. Our calorie consumption went up about 10 percent over the same period of time. And we may be making the same mistake about calories again with the low-carb diets. Sure, there are bad carbs like white bread and cake, as well as processed foods, but there are also good carbs, such as fruits a vegetables. There is even good fats, olives and nuts, to name a couple.
Whatever you end up eating, low-carb, low-fat or just a balanced meal, remember, watch those calories.
GUPTA (on camera): Here that-to-talk about the carbs versus fat debate, Heidi Skolnik. She's a nutritionist for the New York Giants and the school of American Ballet, Amy O'Connor, deputy editor of "Prevention" magazine, and Wahida Karmally, director of nutrition at the Irving Center of Columbia University Medical Center.
Thanks all of you for joining us. Why do people listen to these million diet gurus instead of doctors, do you think, Heidi?
HEIDI SKOLNIK, NUTRITIONIST, NEW YORK GIANTS: Well, I think everybody wants the quick fix. We get into this all or none thinking. It's with this low-carb, low-fat no-carb, no-fat, it's this all or gone.
GUPTA: We heard about the low-fat debate a lot. Is the low-carb debate going to be bigger debate than that, do you think? Is this bigger than what low-fat was 10, 15 years ago?
AMY O'CONNOR, DEPUTY EDITOR, "PREVENTION" MAGAZINE: You know low-fat was really big. I think people don't remember that. But the fact is that low-fat never meant low calories, and low-carb doesn't mean low calories. And the key to weight loss is cutting down on calories. GUPTA: You there was a study Wahida. It said, six months, low- carb may be a little bit better than low-fat in terms of losing weight, if that's your parameter. One year, it evened out. People hear that and they still want the low-carb diet. Why is that? Why all the fascination?
WAHIDA KARMALLY, COLUMBIA UNIV. MEDICAL CTR.: That's correct. Initially they get a jumpstart. They see a quick weight loss, and that's because they're having a low carbohydrate, and which has a diuretic effect on it, and when you choose a low carbohydrate, you also end up eating less calories. It's also a hypercaloric diet.
GUPTA: Is this here to stay, Heidi, do you think, low-carb diet? How much longer? Decades?
SKOLNIK: I can't predict how much longer, but I'd say that there's going to be a rebound eventually.
O'CONNOR: I do think there is a backlash coming, because people go on these diets, they lose weight, but they do gain it back. They just don't work long-term.
GUPTA: We've got a lot more coming up on this topic. Thanks all of your for joining us today.
Tomorrow we're going to talk about money and carbs. Low-carb diets mean big bucks for manufacturers. But is it really paying off in inches on your waist? Join us for the rest of the week for AMERICAN MORNING's low-carb craze series.
Back to you, Soledad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay, thank you very much.
And if having your own personal shopper just isn't enough, one store is making it even easier for their high-end clients. We'll explain just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. Back to Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I hope Mrs. Cafferty is not watching at this particularly moment.
I'm going to explain.
A personal shopper, that's not just enough for some folks anymore. There is even a better way to do this.
Andy Serwer's here with that and a market preview "Minding Your Business."
Good morning. ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Make it easier to rack up those credit card bills?
CAFFERTY: Oh, man, she doesn't need any help, do you know what I'm saying.
SERWER: Help is on the way, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Gold medal in shopping.
SERWER: Let's talk a little bit about the markets. Futures decidedly lower this morning. Why? Price of oil now a record $41.83 a barrel. A bombing in Iraq, of course. And also foreign markets getting roiled, especially in India. We'll talk about that in a second.
Meanwhile, in Asia, markets are down 5 percent, 7 percent, South Korean and Thailand, and that's big.
Here we got India, these are pictures -- here's a guy rioting in India on a cell phone, Jack. I like that. Here I am, I am rioting outside the stock exchange in India.
That's part of -- these are pictures from this morning. the Indian market down 11 percent. There is some concern there about the new government being formed being anti-business. And so that is really causing quite an uproar there.
Let's talk a little bit about Kmart, shall we?
CAFFERTY: OK, another good quarter.
SERWER: They did. What a year -- what a difference a year makes here. The swing is unbelievable. They reported a profit of $83 million. No big deal, except the last year they lost $892 million. Swing!
CAFFERTY: Every little bit helps.
SERWER: Yes, absolutely.
And now I want to talk about this phone story, OK. Macy's and Burdines (ph) down in Florida have a new system whereby your personal shopper will send you pictures and video clips of items that you might want to buy on your Sprint cell phone.
CAFFERTY: So you don't even have to leave the house.
SERWER: You don't have to go on the Internet. You just sit there and it's like, you hit the button, boom, I'm going to buy it.
CAFFERTY: You can sit home go shopping naked if you want.
SERWER: Yes, you know, I was going to think about that, sit home and shop naked.
CAFFERTY: I bought that sofa when I was naked.
SERWER: I never even thought about that.
You know Burdines down in Florida, you know how it got its start, 19th century, they started out selling clothes to soldiers in the Spanish-American War, going all the way back.
CAFFERTY: They came over here without any clothes?
SERWER: Yes, something like that. Well, they didn't have those phones. Naked.
CAFFERTY: Actually it's a good idea. It'll be probably very successful.
Time now for the -- where are we here? It's time -- there you are. It's time now for The Cafferty File.
Air America, the liberal talk show network. That would be Air America. They have a new product line for sale on the Internet. They got, you know, the usual stuff, stationary, mugs, T-shirts, bumper stickers. But then there are the not so usual things. That would be an Air America thong.
SERWER: No!
CAFFERTY: $15.99.
SERWER: Please remove that from the screen. Why are they keeping it up? OK.
CAFFERTY: Put it on backwards.
SERWER: I didn't like looking at that.
CAFFERTY: New York City, we have $99 hamburger. We're now home also to a $1,000 omelet. "The Daily News" reports this this morning. The Parker Meridian Hotel added the $1,000 omelet to their breakfast menu. It contains eggs, chives, butter cream, the usual stuff, also a lobster and 10 ounces of caviar. They've also created a poor man's version that you can get for $100. "The Daily News says that no one has ordered either one of these so far since they appeared on the menu May 5th. So they've been there half a month and no takers.
And finally, as we saw last weekend, in Kansas, tornado season is turning out more and more storm chasers. And according to "USA Today," these hardcore weather fans can be dangerous. They're now causing traffic jams on rural roads, which can prevent emergency crews from getting to the scene. The chasers include a wide range of people, from meteorology students to weather hobbyists to moron who pay thousands of dollars to go out and race around some country road risking getting killed by a tornado. I mean, you've got to have parts on order that haven't come in yet.
SERWER: Now wasn't that private caught up in the Iraqi prison scandal, didn't she want to be one? HEMMER: The pregnant woman.
SERWER: Yes, she wanted to be one.
HEMMER: Lynndie England.
SERWER: Yes, she wanted to be a storm chaser.
CAFFERTY: She might have been better off.
SERWER: She's kind of caught one, didn't she?
HEMMER: Yes, as a matter of fact.
You doing all right?
CAFFERTY: Am I doing all right?
HEMMER: Yes. You look great.
SERWER: Naked shopping?
O'BRIEN: That was whole other...
SERWER: Is that why you asked that question?
CAFFERTY: I mean, think about it now. Wouldn't that be nice, to be able to sit home? You're about to redecorate your apartment. Would you rather sit home and have somebody send you a...
O'BRIEN: Not shopping naked, just for...
CAFFERTY: Let's wait a few weeks.
O'BRIEN: None of my clothes actually fit anymore? Is that what you're saying.
HEMMER: Let's get a break. In a moment, we'll get you back to Iraq and that car bombing rocking the Iraqi capital today. What happens now? Reaction from a top Republican senator on what to do there in Iraq after this, on AMERICAN MORNING.
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