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American Morning
Pundits Analyze President's State of the Union Speech; Reaction to President's State of the Union Address; $7 Million Bridge Project for Tiny Town; Trapped Teenager Rescued from Rubble After 15 Days
Aired January 28, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have never been more hopeful about America's future than I am tonight.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: At the dawn of a new decade, double- digit unemployment and ballooning deficits, President Obama said the state of our union is strong and he still has hope. But critics this morning are saying it sounded a lot like an old campaign speech.
Good Thursday morning to you, and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's the 28th of January. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have a lot of big stories we're telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
First, the state of the union the day after, President Obama saying that jobs are job one. The president devoting about two-thirds of his state of the union address to the economy, saying that jobs will be the focus of 2010.
Now a lot of critics are wondering, why wasn't it the focus of 2009? The best political team is live in Washington and fanned out across middle America to find out how you're feeling the morning after.
ROBERTS: Toyota motors in a very tough spot right now, the auto giant recalling another 1.1 million cars. Camrys and Corollas now being pulled from car rental lots across the country, customers are bombarding dealerships with demands for new cars.
Those sticky accelerators sending the automaker into a very dangerous tailspin.
CHETRY: Also, it's day four of the CNN stimulus project and we are following your tax dollars to the small town of Fenford, Nebraska, population 168, home to a brand-new $7 million bridge paid for with your tax dollars as part of the stimulus. But was it smart spending or money down the drain? Christine Romans checks in.
ROBERTS: We begin this morning with President Obama's very first state of the union address. Coming a year -- coming after a year of setbacks, it was part pep rally, part counterattack, a bid to recapture the hearts of many middle class voters, who have been underwhelmed and overburdened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by a severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act we might face a second depression.
So we acted immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed. But the devastation remains.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Senator John McCain called that B-I-O-B, "Blame it on Bush." Our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry kicks off the best political team's coverage this morning. And Ed, a real pivot for the president last night.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, John. The president was candid about political setbacks, saying some of them were deserved. But he was also a little bit defiant, saying he's not going to quit in terms of pushing health care or other key parts of his agenda.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: It was the pivot his critics believe he should have made months ago -- healthcare now on the back burner, the pain of a lingering economic recession front and center.
OBAMA: I realize that for every success story there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from. That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that's why I'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight.
HENRY: On health care he took his share of blame for not explaining the issue clearly enough and was self-deprecating about the political wounds.
OBAMA: By now, it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics.
(LAUGHTER)
HENRY: The topic that has consumed most of his presidency was now just a short plea in a nearly 70-minute state of the union address. OBAMA: Don't walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people. Let's get it done.
(APPLAUSE)
HENRY: There was a laundry list of other policy proposals, reforms for Wall Street, climate change legislation, more money for education. And the president defended last year's work, especially the stimulus package, but was also candid, almost wistful about promises unkept.
OBAMA: I campaigned on the promise of change. "Change we can believe in," the slogan went. And right now I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change or that I can deliver it. But remember this -- I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone.
HENRY: He concluded with an optimistic call for both sides to come together.
OBAMA: We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Some of the speech was a challenge to Republicans, that basically now that they have 41 seats in the Senate they just can't say no all the time, they've got to meet the president halfway on some big issues.
But it seemed Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who gave the official Republican response, spoke for many in his party when he said he believes the president is just turning to government too often for the solution, and there are some of these big issues where they cannot come together, John.
ROBERTS: Particularly in this election year, I would think, Ed. Ed Henry at the White House this morning. Ed, thanks so much.
HENRY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, it's six minutes past the hour, and we're talking about whether or not the president made his case. And to break it down, some of the country's best political minds join me now. We have CNN senior political analyst Ed Rollins as well as senior political correspondent Candy Crowley and Bob Shrum, professor of public service at NYU and long time Democratic strategist. Great to have you all with us. So first, let me start with you, Candy, just your first impressions about what he needed to say last night and whether or not you thought he hit the mark.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He probably hit the mark. If we're looking at the polling of the people who watched the speech last night, he certainly reached his base. He certainly reached those who were prone to like him, because that's who generally watches the state of the union, the people whose party you're from.
The question, though, is what happens today, what happens tomorrow, what happens next month, because he talked about what every single poll for six months has said -- jobs. He did that. He reached out to the independents, talking about bipartisanship.
So he did mechanically and rhetorically all the things he had to hit considering what the polls were showing. The question is, you know, what's the follow through.
ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: What amazed me was he said we're not about politics and campaigning or worrying about elections, and he gave a great campaign speech, one that was short of...
CHETRY: And is bringing back his campaign manager David Plouffe, right.
ROLLINS: If I was a liberal Democrat House member, I'd be very happy. If I was a centrist Democrat in the U.S. Senate that he attacked five times last night, I would not be very happy.
CHETRY: And Bob, he did try to bring back the folks and say, look, we did make mistakes, I acknowledge that we made mistakes. He also said I didn't like the bank bailout. I hated it as much as you. Did that resonate?
BOB SHRUM, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It did resonate. And there was a focus group conducted by the Democracy Corps out in Las Vegas that was actually weighted towards Republicans that showed that the president did very well.
I actually -- I guess I disagree totally with that. I thought it was a spectacular speech. I think it is landmark, as Reagan's '82 and '83 state of the unions were, because I think the president made a very important decision last night.
He wasn't going to pull a Clinton, he wasn't going to move back from his fundamental beliefs. He was going push forward and fight on these things, which is exactly what Reagan did in '82 and '83, while, also, Ed, as you'll recall, giving a brilliant campaign speech without mentioning Carter's name. He blamed Jimmy Carter for every problem he had.
ROLLINS: And we lost 26 seats in the midterms. SHRUM: And you won 49 states and began a conservative era in this country that lasted for 25 years. Reagan stayed the course in '83 even after he lost those 26 seats. This guy's not going to walk away.
CROWLEY: But the shelf life of state of the union speeches are pretty short.
SHRUM: I think this will last longer, Candy.
CROWLEY: Really? I just think in the end people are going to say, so where are the jobs? You cannot run up to the election as a Democrat and not have healthcare reform.
SHRUM: I agree with that.
CROWLEY: And not -- and have an unemployment rate hovering in the nines and the tens.
CHETRY: He did try to through in specifics about the job. He talked about taking some of the money from the bank bailout, giving it to regional banks so that they can actually lend again, talking about some of the tax credits.
One of the interesting things though was this call to bipartisanship. Let's come back to the meetings, meeting once a month.
ROLLINS: Meetings are fine. He'll meet with the Republican House members on Friday. It's always good to talk to the other side.
There's nothing on the table, though, that's going to bring Republicans to the table. And I think the bottom line here is we talked about a lot of new spending programs at the same time we're talking about being fiscally conservative.
SHRUM: My favorite moment was when the president is talking about the need for regulatory form and then the TARP funding for the community banks for lending, and the Republicans sat there like the terracotta soldiers in the tomb of the Chinese emperor.
And I actually think that visual was very powerful for the country. It was a campaign speech in the sense that he kept reaching out, at least rhetorically, and I think he actually means it -- he kept reaching out and kept getting, until we got to offshore oil drilling, a pretty hostile response.
CROWLEY: There were plenty of shots in there for Republicans.
CHETRY: We'll continue the conversation. Actually, John's going to step in next. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about the state of the union. John?
ROBERTS: Just before we take a break, a little bit of news here on Toyota. It's in a tailspin this morning, the largest car company in the world announcing yet another major recall. It's the second since last week.
Toyota says it's an old problem plaguing some new models, faulty floor mats that can jam up against the gas pedal and cause an uncontrollable acceleration.
The company recalled millions of cars last fall for the same reason. This time another 1.1 million vehicles are affected -- 2008 to 2010 Highlanders and the 2009 and 2010 Corolla, Venza and Matrix models. Also recalled, 2009 and 2010 Pontiac vibes that have the same problem.
And just last week Toyota recalled 2.3 million cars because of potentially defective accelerator pedals.
CHETRY: Still ahead, the amazing story, against all odds, yet another survivor pulls from the rubble in Haiti alive. We're going to have her amazing story. Gary Tuchman was there.
It's 10 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: It's 13 minutes after the hour. We're back with our political panel this morning.
So the president joked last night about healthcare reform seeing as how it's in so much trouble. Let's play a little of what he said last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Let's clear a few things up.
(LAUGHTER)
I didn't choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt. And by now, it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: It was a funny moment last night, but it's certainly no laughing matter for the millions of Americans who this morning don't have health insurance and the millions more who are going to lose it over the next year, Bob.
SHRUM: That's why he reaffirmed his commitment to health insurance. I don't think health reform could have been the centerpiece of the speech. I think the economy had to be the centerpiece of the speech.
But health reform had to be a very important part of that speech. Had he backed off it, he would have sent a signal of weakness. I agree with Candy said a few minutes ago. And by the way, this focus group that Democracy Corps did said we really liked the speech. They moved big on all sorts of numbers, but they said he's got to deliver on healthcare reform, and he's got to deliver on jobs.
ROBERTS: Candy, he blamed himself for not explaining healthcare more clearly over the course of the last year, and that's something that you and other astute political reporters have been saying for some time.
CROWLEY: And I must say, it wasn't, you know, all that hard to figure out, simply because I've never seen a White House that said, you're right, our policies are bad. It's always, we haven't gotten our message out, we haven't been clear about our message.
But I think what was very clear in the message about health care, which he's now calling healthcare -- health insurance reform, which is slightly different than health reform.
SHRUM: But he said, but he said we must cover all the uninsured. He held to his fundamental principles, and it was really critical, I think.
CROWLEY: Yes, but I think what you saw was the shrinking of what's going to happen. I mean, the embrace of reality by this president, because you didn't get a, give me this, this, this, this, and this. You got a, I'm still for health reform.
ROLLINS: What was papered over is the real battle going on between the Democrats in the Senate and the Democrats in the House. And he clearly took to the House yesterday, to the cheers of the audience, which doesn't make it any easy for Harry Reid, who's in trouble to begin with, to move any of this stuff through, including health care.
ROBERTS: I was going to ask you, Ed, the president's call to end the bipartisanship in Washington. Do Republicans have any interest in doing that in this election year? I mean --
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Absolutely not.
ROBERTS: Chum has been thrown in the water there.
BOB SHRUM, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: That was honest. That was honest.
ROLLINS: And why should they. I mean, there's not a thing there that makes the words right. I think we were happy.
SHRUM: It basically works for you. What about the 33 million people without health care, Ed? We're talking to people --
ROLLINS: We applauded and I think we support the job stuff, especially the small business, the taxes, those type things. Those are our things that we basically (INAUDIBLE)
ROBERTS: But it's like chum -- chum has been thrown in the water here for weeks and the sharks are circling.
SHRUM: Ed went for it immediately. He said that stuff doesn't work for us.
ROBERTS: Right.
SHRUM: You know, I think people are sitting out there saying, not what works for the Republican Party, not what works for the Democrats, what works for people who are losing their health insurance, what works for people who don't have jobs, what works for kids who can't afford college. And I thought the president spoke to that last night, and I think we're going to over time see a real impact.
One other thing, by the way, I should say, what was really interesting watching him last night was how comfortable he was. People thought he was going to be wobbly. Expectations were I think a little difficult, and he -- he has the kind of sense of humor that we haven't seen in a president, I haven't seen it much from him before.
ROBERTS: Right.
ROLLINS: I thought...
SHRUM: That we haven't seen in a president since...
ROBERTS: But Candy...
SHRUM: Since your friend Ronald Reagan.
ROBERTS: Candy, look what's happened in the last, you know, couple of elections here that have taken place. The loss in Massachusetts, loss in Virginia, loss in New Jersey. Are Republicans going to suddenly say, oh, yes, let's all get together and let's forge forward? Or are they going to say, these are our principles, we're going to fight on these principles, we don't care what the Democrats do because we're winning and fighting them?
CROWLEY: They'll say both. They'll say yes, we want to work with the president where we have agreement, but we are not going to give up our principles. You'll see both.
It's an election year. You will see the Democrats saying, well you see, we can't get anything done for the American people because the Republicans are always standing in our way, and the Republicans are going to argue, but, you know, see, they're giving the wrong thing. So it's good we're standing in the way. So that's the election year argument. And I think anybody that's looking for bipartisanship probably in any year, but particularly in a midterm election is going to be disappointed.
ROLLINS: And what the president has to say, don't run for the hills to his own troops, I think that's -- but we have to govern.
SHRUM: I thought it was a great line. Great line. Great line. I'll tell you one other thing. I think the party of no peaked a year too early.
ROBERTS: Let's hold it right there and we'll be back with you next hour. Bob Shrum, Ed Rollins and Candy Crowley, thanks so much.
Seventeen-and-a-half minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: It is now 20 minutes after the hour. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business" this Thursday morning. And all this week, we've been bringing you "The Stimulus Project." The stimulus, of course, one of the most expensive bills ever passed in American history. And this week we're breaking down how your money is being spent with the new recalculation from the Congressional Budget Office, all $862 billion of it.
CHETRY: Right. Breaking it into smaller pieces, you can understand where it's going. And today we're taking a look at the $7 million bridge that's being built in a small town in Nebraska.
Our Christine Romans has been talking to people there. A lot of them say they think it's a big waste of cash. And Christine is going to break it down for us right now.
Hey, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Mostly they say what's the point. We broke this down per capita. We started looking across the country at the biggest projects per capita. An interesting way to measure it.
Let me show you one of them here. Franklin County, this one really interesting. Franklin County, this one is in -- let me pull that down. Franklin County, this one has got 27,000 per capita. This is in Kentucky.
Frankfort is the state capital. There are a hundred different road projects right there in Franklin County, that's why this one's the biggest.
There's also one here in South Carolina. Aiken County, South Carolina, $10,000 per capita. This is a billion dollar new clear site. It's a cleanup there that makes this a very expensive per capita project.
Then we looked all the way over here in Nebraska. And this is where we found our Thedford bridge we're going to tell but. Population, 168. That means the project cost of $6.9 million breaks down to $41,000 per resident on paper.
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ROMANS (voice-over): In the Nebraska sand hills, in the small ranching town of Thedford, long-time resident Marv Blauvelt still doesn't know why millions in stimulus money landed on his front yard.
MARV BLAUVELT, THEDFORD RESIDENT: We just feel like they sold us down the river, really.
ROMANS: Maybe not a river, but a railroad. A railroad bridge to be exact. The citizens of Thedford, all 168 of them, will get this new $7 million bridge to replace this railroad crossing on the way into town and right through Marv's front yard.
(on camera): Can you explain to me what the point is of this bridge?
BLAUVELT: Well, really in all honesty, we don't know what the point is except some design engineer in Lincoln decided that this is what needed to be done.
ROMANS (voice-over): Nebraska officials say the new bridge means cars will avoid waiting for trains. Sometimes the wait is 30 seconds. Sometimes, three minutes. The bridge also means train engineers don't have to worry about safety at the crossing.
MONTY FREDRICKSON, DIRECTOR, NEBRASKA DEPT. OF ROADS: Eliminating the conflict between the rail and the highway is an important feature, both from a safety aspect, continuity, mobility, and especially emergency services.
ROMANS (on camera): It's standard country living to wait for the train at the rail crossing. Some 60 to 80 trains every day go rumbling through here. On paper at least, this rail crossing is a traffic and safety issue. But residents say they never minded the wait. And the big stimulus bridge to replace this crossing, they say that stimulus bridge is nothing more than a big detour.
MIKE HODGES, THEDFORD BUSINESS OWNER: The amount of time that it's going to take you to go around the loop to get back to the highway is probably about the same amount of time you would have sat and waited for the train to go by.
ROMANS (voice-over): During town meetings, Mike Hodges, owner of a local service station, tried to fight the project which cuts through his property.
HODGES: They had their mind made up, what they were going to do, how they're going to do it. They asked everybody's opinion, but it didn't matter.
JUDY TAYLOR, TREASURER, THOMAS COUNTY: We saw no money.
ROMANS: Judy Taylor is Thomas County treasurer and Thedford's town chairman.
TAYLOR: I haven't seen anything that said we benefited from this. Not yet.
ROMANS: All she sees is a little town with a very big bridge.
TAYLOR: I think it's humongous.
ROMANS: The Nebraska Roads Department says the bridge was an appropriate stimulus project. It was shovel-ready.
FREDRICKSON: One of the main criteria of the whole bill in the first place is to get money on the street fast and put people to work.
ROMANS: So who's building the bridge? Not Nebraskans. A Colorado contractor won the bid, using its own out of state workers. A few locals were hired as temps. Like Trina Mentel (ph). She waved a flag for $10 an hour, enough to make her technically a stimulus worker.
TRINA MENTEL (ph), TEMPORARY WORKER: It was there, and now it's gone. I didn't gain anything from it except a part-time job for a couple months. That's it.
ROMANS: And that's Thedford's beef. No economic benefit, no full-time jobs, and a lot of taxpayer money just to cross the railroad tracks.
(on camera): No matter what, $7 million is a lot of money anywhere, especially here.
BLAUVELT: Yes, definitely. Buy a lot of cows. Buy a lot of cattle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: So we did find one Nebraskan who's benefiting from this. That's BNSF. It's owned, of course, by Nebraska's own billionaire Warren Buffett. There's an economic benefit to that bridge for BNSF, the railroad, that railroad owned by Buffett.
The railroad says it does not -- it did not lobby for this project, but it does support it for safety reasons. Think of it. Now you get rid of that crossing so those engineers don't have to worry about cars there. And the railroad says it will pay more than $300,000 on top of the almost $7 million in taxpayer dollars when the bridge is done and the railroad crossing is no longer operational.
So bottom line for this project, everyone, $6,943,648. The number of jobs? Twenty existing jobs from that Denver construction firm, out of state, two to three local job that's have since ended, and there's a hope among people who work there that maybe there's going to be a little more part-time work. You know, that flag waving is about $10 an hour. A little bit part-time work maybe in the spring when they actually -- when they pave the bridge.
CHETRY: You talked yesterday about all the rules and regulations tied to the stimulus projects. One isn't that that it's in state or in country contractors.
ROMANS: It's the cheapest bid so they get the best bang for taxpayers' money. That's what the state says. They went with the cheapest bidder.
ROBERTS: Well, it's giving folks something to talk about, and, of course, the value of that is incalculable. ROMANS: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead tomorrow, we're talking about the recession leading to huge layoffs in manufacturing companies, but how the stimulus has helped some of those workers learn new skills and find new jobs.
Our Gerri Willis has the story of one man in Ohio. The stimulus saved his family from losing everything and is now giving them hope for the future. So we're going to take a look at that story tomorrow as the stimulus project continues right here on the Most News in the Morning.
It's 27 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Amid all the death and despair in Haiti comes an incredible moment of hope.
CHETRY: It really is. A full 15 days after the earthquake, a 16-year-old girl pulled from the rubble alive. And rescuers say it is nothing short of a miracle. Gary Tuchman has her amazing story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A teenage girl trapped for 15 days in the rubble of her house and successfully pulled out. That's what her rescuers are telling us.
It appears to be an amazing story of survival. A French rescue team is brought to the site by neighborhood residents who said they heard a voice in the rubble. She was too weak to say her name. But neighbors say her name is Darlene Etienne (ph). The rescuers told us based on her condition they believe she'd been trapped in this house near a university campus since the January 12th quake.
(on camera): The head doctor for the French rescue team says the crew took about 45 minutes to pull her out of this opening but they say she was in this small crevice behind my foot, about 30 feet behind here. That's where the bathroom of the house was. That's where there was plenty of water.
The rescue team says she was not crushed but was entombed and could barely move.
DR. CLAUDE FUTILLA, FRENCH CIVIL SECURITY RESCUE TEAM (through translator): It's an indescribable feeling. It's a reward for all the Haitians who believed that anything was possible.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Dehydrated and with low blood pressure, the girl was whisked to a temporary hospital. Through crowds of neighbors who assumed she was dead, her rescuers jubilant about their success. From the hospital, a helicopter transported the teenager out the sea to a French medical ship. Her condition stabilized. A half month after she was trapped alone in the dark.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: You can't imagine being trapped for two minutes let alone two weeks.
CHETRY: The way he said it, half of a month and she survived, thank god because of her location. There was water there and there was some talk about perhaps Coca-Cola having some sort of sugar.
ROBERTS: The longest previously-known survivor was 14 days. So that would be a new record. Wow. Just an incredible story.
Stay with us because in 20 minutes time we're going to have much more on that young woman's incredible survival story. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with a live update from Port-au-Prince just ahead.
CHETRY: And we're crossing the half hour. Time to check our top stories.
Search teams have located the flight data recorder from an Ethiopian Airlines plane that caught fire during a lightning storm and crashed off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, earlier this week. All 90 people on board are presumed dead. The flight recorder is about 4,200 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. It still has to be retrieved.
ROBERTS: Toyota announcing yet another major recall, its second since last week. This time faulty floor mats that can jam the gas pedal. The company recalled millions of cars last fall for the same reason. Now, another 1.1 million vehicles are affected. The latest announcement coming just a day after Toyota suspended sales and production of eight models with potentially defective accelerators, and barely a week after recalling two million cars with that same problem.
CHETRY: Also, President Obama vowing in his first "State of the Union" address to make job creation his top priority. He also says Congress owes it to the American people to put bitter politics aside. But even as the president called for bipartisanship, he criticized Republicans for trying to block everything.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, a super majority, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.
Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Joining us with the Republican reaction and where the party goes from here is former New York City mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Mayor, great to see you this morning.
RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Good to be with you.
CHETRY: You had a chance to watch the speech. You were actually on the plane.
GIULIANI: I watched it on a Delta airplane.
CHETRY: How about that? Seventy minutes long.
GIULIANI: Yes.
CHETRY: And he did at times criticize the GOP but then also called for bipartisanship. Which message to you think resonated?
GIULIANI: Well, I think the message on the domestic front is he did offer some things Republicans can cooperate on. I was very encouraged by nuclear power. I think this country needs it. We're way behind -- actually we're behind China and India now in terms of plans. We're behind France, which is 80 percent nuclear. I thought he was quite correct that we should look for some offshore drilling opportunities.
I thought embracing, hopefully, I think he's embracing -- couldn't tell quite, but the free trade agreement with North Korea, Colombia, Panama, these are all things Republicans this morning should say give us the legislation, we're ready to go. Let's find some things we can work together.
The biggest part of the speech I was disappointed with was national security, which he mentioned for, it almost seemed to me like a footnote, like an afterthought. Very little time spent. Nothing substantive said about it. The only thing he actually said about national security is he's going to bring the troops home from Iraq in august of this year. But of course he was going to close Guantanamo by January of this year. So who knows --
CHETRY: But it's interesting because when you poll, I mean -- and national security is still a big one. Still top three in a lot of the polls, but number one, worries about the economy and worries about jobs and he really did try to address this. Is there anything that Republicans can embrace there? Because they didn't clap. That side of the aisle didn't clap (INAUDIBLE)
GIULIANI: Yes. I think they're unsure of what his jobs bill is going to be. I think, yes, Republicans could clap for a jobs bill. But is it really going to be a jobs bill or is it just going to be a remake of the stimulus which has been a disaster. And I think by anyone's account, certainly hasn't achieved the objective of the stimulus? To bring the unemployment rate down from 10 percent -- to keep it below eight percent where the unemployment rate is 10 percent. Unemployment at record highs. Deficits are at record highs.
CHETRY: Do you really believe that the president can create jobs?
GIULIANI: No. I think the president can do intelligent things to help create jobs or he can do things that retard jobs. This president so far has been doing thing that's hold jobs back. By taking the deficit up more than any president in American history. He has put a serious damper on the recovery of the American -- of the American economy by creating this tremendous fear of inflation.
He's got the Fed worried about what to do and when to do it. He's got China telling him spend less money. Then he goes about this kind of silly freeze thing which -- amounts to $15 billion --
CHETRY: But the response, he said it's a step in the right direction.
GIULIANI: Sure.
CHETRY: Got to start somewhere, right?
GIULIANI: But this is like, you know, saving $15 in a budget where you go out and spend $100,000. And then by the time he finished the speech he was spending another $200 million. So by the time you get finished with the jobs bill, which I think the house version costs about $120 billion, you get rid of some of the things he's going to do for students and others, which may be worthy or not.
CHETRY: Right.
GIULIANI: But he's going to end up saving $15 and spending $200. Hey, that's $185 billion more that he's now spending. So I think the president better embrace the fact he's a big spender. That he is. He's a big government guy. I don't think anything he said last night changed that.
CHETRY: Well, let me just ask you about this though because what is the Republican strategy, then, moving forward? There was a lot of talk about the fact that, ok, there's no super majority left. So the Republicans need to take on a bigger role. Yet at the same time they were victorious in the special election, turned everything on its ear, taking (INAUDIBLE)
GIULIANI: I'm not sure that will be enough for November of this year, and then November, you know, 2 1/2 years from now. I think Republican should say, you know, give us what you said you were going to do. Send us to nuclear expansion, a nuclear power plant expansion. We'll vote for it. Send us a clean coal bill, we'll vote for it. Don't mix in poison pills that we can't vote for, that we have, you know, something in it that is totally alien to our principles. But give us those individual bills, we'll work on it with you.
CHETRY: Does the GOP embrace health insurance reform? It was a change in wording last night.
GIULIANI: Republicans should be clear about what their answer is. It's a good answer. Market reform. And Republicans should be for portability, Republicans should be for purchasing health insurance all around the country. Republicans should be strong on tort reform. President said nothing about tort reform last night.
In my view you cannot reform health care in this country without dealing with medical malpractice and how it's totally distorting the health care industry and the medical profession. It's a phony reform if it doesn't embrace tort reform. And again, on national security, it may be the American people are more concerned about the economy, the president should be more concerned about national security.
And he has so far demonstrated in his first year -- he was on vacation when the Christmas attack almost took place. He didn't come back from vacation, his administration didn't come back from vacation. They stop this had guy's questioning in the middle of talking to him. That is outrageous and irresponsible. And he should be figuring out who did that and he should be holding them to account.
He should have talked about the mistakes that he made with regard to Ft. Hood, and the way he minimized Ft. Hood at first, the way he minimized the Christmas bombing at first. These are dangerous, serious things. They are not partisan. These are things that have to do with our national security, not Republicans or Democrats.
He said the least about national security than any American president I can recall at a time in which we are at war with Islamic terrorists. And notice once again he never used that word. This is like Franklin Roosevelt during the second world war not mentioning Nazis and not mentioning war.
CHETRY: So that's your biggest criticism -- he should have focused more on national security.
GIULIANI: On the economy I find things I like, things I can cooperate with. I hope my party becomes cooperative with regard to that. I hope my party is very critical with regard to his ignoring national security.
CHETRY: All right. Always great to get your take this morning, the Republican response. Mayor Giuliani, thanks for being with us.
GIULIANI: Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: The president plans to life the economy that he outlined last night. We're running the past hour, economic panel this morning. We'll hear what they have to say about it. It's 39 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. The president focusing on the economy in his "State of the Union" address last night. His new number one priority? Creating jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: But I realize that for every success story there are other stories. Of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from. Who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response. That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that's why I'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Among the president's other proposals, using $30 billion in repaid bailout money for small business loans. Will his ideas work, though? Joining us, his economic analyst Lakshman Achuthan and from "Fortune" magazine and the Dailybeast.com, William Cohan, and our Christine Romans who is "Minding your Business" this morning.
So Bill, first time you've been here this week, what did you think what the president had to say last night, the pivot to the economy and his plans to try to create a lot of jobs?
WILLIAM COHAN, DAILYBEAST.COM: Well, I think the first thing is that he treated us like adults. He said there's a lot of problems and we need to face up to them, and then he started to lay out various ways to do it. He didn't sugar coat it. He didn't say, you know, everything's good and it's getting better. He said we've got real problems and we've got to face them. So I give him high marks for being forthright and honest and for grappling with the economy is a major priority.
ROBERTS: Lakshman, a lot of people are saying, as Bill is, high marks. A lot of people are saying where were you last year with this?
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, you know, this puts into stark relief the fact that we want Washington and the president to do something. We liked that illusion. The fact is it's not going to happen. Anything that they do will not change the course of the business cycle. And the good news is that there's a business cycle recovery going on already.
So almost no matter what he said or even if what he said actually comes to pass, you will see relief in terms of the economy and jobs very soon. And so he'll take credit for that.
ROBERTS: Right. Christine Romans, you know, one of the things he proposed last night was a tax credit for small businesses who hire new employees. That was an idea that didn't go anywhere in Congress last year because, you know, how do you operate it? How do you police it? How do you prevent people from taking advantage of it?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Small business people are very skeptical of everything that they're hearing. Because they heard from the stimulus they were going to get these immediate $35,000 stabilization loans, that took forever to get them, not everybody could get them.
Small business owners out there want certainty. They want to know what's going to happen for them the next year, and that's one of the reasons, they need credit, too, and that's one of the reasons why they're not hiring.
ACHUTHAN: Well, you know, also about hiring, let's say I'll give you five grand if you hire somebody. That's not enough to do it.
ROMANS: You have to have demand.
ACHUTHAN: And the president cannot create the demand for a $14 trillion economy to make a bump. The business cycle has to turn. And you have a virtuous move in the cycle. Tomorrow we're going to get a number of GDP. It's going to be about four percent. That's a double- digit increase in the growth rate of GDP since the first quarter of 2009.
That's not a small recovery. That's a in your face recovery, and you'll see the jobs as a result of that coming behind it.
ROBERTS: Bill, what about this idea of giving $30 million to community banks to try to free up some of these lending money?
COHAN: I think it's a very good start, but $30 billion seems like a drop in the bucket, frankly. You give $185 billion to AIG, for one company, $30 billion across the whole country and small businesses? So it's not something that -- I think it makes a lot of sense, but the -- the banks who are here in New York and money -- other money sort of (ph) banks and community banks need to make more loans available to these small businesses, not just for the big businesses with the best credit ratings.
ROMANS: But those banks -- those banks -- you know, I've talked to some of those community banks and they say, well we actually have some money to lend, but don't have credit-worthy borrowers.
People are scared, where they're scared right now. They don't want to expand if they are credit-worthy. And so it's this certainty, trust and confidence that you can't measure that has to come back.
ACHUTHAN: You see, you don't -- a couple of things. First it's normal for credit growth it to lag, the business cycle. It's only after the recovery is well under way that people are deemed credit- worthy by the banks.
ROMANS: Right.
ACHUTHAN: It's normal in every single cycle.
But the other thing is, you don't have to trust any of this. It's happening already. I think that we are -- you know, we're beaten up because of -- I think the president had a -- had a line last night, you know, the storm has passed but there's all this destruction.
We're sitting here staring at this destruction... ROMANS: Right.
ACHUTHAN: ... and -- and trying to recover from that emotionally.
COHAN: But the president also talked about a deficit of trust.
ACHUTHAN: Yes.
COHAN: And -- and I think that is a powerful idea in -- in America right now.
ACHUTHAN: I'm -- I'm saying don't -- you don't put your trust in Washington, don't even, you know, whatever your -- (INAUDIBLE) don't put your trust in the president, it's going to happen anyway.
ROBERTS: One of the big challenges for him too is to try to get in of the pseudo-political (ph) gridlock in Washington, but -- stay with us. We're going to be back to you the next hour.
ACHUTHAN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Still ahead, we are tracking winter storm alert with our Weather Center. Travel today -- travel delays are likely. We're going to check in with Jacqui Jeras in just a moment.
Right now, it is 47 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Pretty picture this morning from Tampa, Florida, where right now it's sunny and 46 degrees, and it's going to go up a lot today. A little bit later it's going to be sunny and a high of 72. Nice place to be today.
ROBERTS: Very nice. Yes. Beautiful sunshine there in the West Coast.
CHETRY: It's unfortunately not like that everywhere across the country today.
Our Jacqui Jeras is tracking the travel forecast for us this morning. We are expecting some weather that's going to make things not so nice in some areas.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I -- I know. Those people are cursing you for showing that Tampa shot probably this morning. Painful to see that when you're in miserable conditions, but it shows that there's hope down the line, right?
Freezing rain and snow and sleet and really windy conditions with the storm system here across the Southern Plains and the southwest today. The I-40 corridor in particular is going to brutal for travel and possibly impossible later on today. Amarillo, reporting that freezing rain. You can see that snow trying to push in from the west. We will see that transition probably with just in -- within just the next couple of hours.
Oklahoma City up towards Lawton (ph), temperatures near that freezing marks. They were still reporting overcast or just some light rain, but we'll likely see that change over to freezing rain in the upcoming hours. We could see accumulations anywhere between maybe a quarter of an inch to an inch of ice, and that could bring down power lines. There you can see the heavy snow across the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma as well.
Severe weather possible on the south side of it, looking for some hail in the northeast. Expect some travel delays with some winds and some of that light snow that continues to move on in.
John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: Jacqui, thanks so much.
All right, here's some incredible video that you just got to see this morning. Check this out.
The truck in the highlight there, coming down the road with his dumpster raised. Pedestrian bridge. Pow! The entire bridge comes down.
You know, when you take a close look at the video, because you're so stunned when you see it the first time, there were people walking across that bridge. One fellow there at the very start of the bridge is -- is walking out -- we're going to replay the video again one more time, because if we do you could -- you could see it.
Sorry. We just have to roll this back a little bit. You could see this...
CHETRY: This is Istanbul, Turkey, by the way, not in the US.
ROBERTS: Yes. That person walking along the bridge sees the truck coming along. I want you to see. Just there on the outside of this spotlight, stops -- uh-oh! What's going on? Boom! And he comes down with the bridge.
That person was injured. I don't know the extent of his injuries, but he is alive. We do know that. There were some other people in the bridge that managed to make it to the center point, too...
CHETRY: Wow.
ROBERTS: ... before it came down.
CHETRY: Just amazing. Obviously a big mistake there, and it was all captured on a traffic camera.
ROBERTS: Yes. The -- the driver of the truck says he was just driving along and all of a sudden the -- the dumpster rose up. But police are checking into his story to see if that, in fact, is the case.
Wow!
The French team makes a miracle rescue in Haiti 15 days after the earthquake. This young girl -- teenage girl, alive after being trapped in the rubble for a half a month. Sanjay Gupta has got a medical update on her, coming right up.
Fifty-two minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's hard to imagine how someone could be trapped in the rubble of an earthquake for 15 days and live to tell about it, but it happened.
CHETRY: Yes, a 16-year-old Haitian girl found buried in concrete by a French rescue team after people in her neighborhood called them to her home. She was pulled out alive.
Let's bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, still live in Port-au-Prince this morning. And, Sanjay, first of all, I mean what a miracle here. We've seen that window close quickly on being able to pull out survivors now that we're 15, 16 days out from the earthquake. How is it possible that she was able to survive for so long?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, no -- no matter how you cut it, it's -- it's extraordinary for sure. And, you know, the things that you might think matter in terms of limiting someone's survival are -- are exactly what you think.
You know, first of all, if they have air pockets or if they're -- the place that they're enclosed in is open to the air. That's the first thing. Obviously, if you don't have enough oxygen, that -- that's going to greatly limit survival, certainly not this long.
Water is sort of the next thing that someone would need. In -- in her particular case, what we understand talking to the French rescuers (INAUDIBLE) that she was trapped in a bathroom, did have some access to water for a period of time, but she was still very dehydrated, very weak, had a very low blood pressure when she was found. So maybe some water but -- but not very much.
And then, after that, food, obviously people need -- but people have gone up to two months as part of a hunger strike or a fast and -- and survived that. So, you know, that's obviously a much longer window.
But -- but it's extraordinary, and, you know, just someone being trapped in that position, she had a broken leg, your body starts to produce all these various toxins that get released into the bloodstream just from laying there for that long, so lots of things working against her.
ROBERTS: You know, we -- we can see she when was pulled out, Sanjay, what terrible shape she was in, how weak she was. What's her prognosis now, knowing that they've got, you know, fluids in her, she's got good medical care on that French ship?
GUPTA: You know, the prognosis is probably not bad for her -- for her surviving everything. What's going to be a -- a big decision point for her is with regard to her leg, if in fact it was pinned, in fact it was crushed. We know it was broken. Is it something that they can salvage in some way or is this a leg that they -- they just have -- are going to have to amputate? So that -- that's going to be a big question, maybe one that they're dealing with now.
Getting the fluids in is very critical, because the kidneys just takes such a hard toxic hit from all of those toxins being released into the bloodstream. Hopefully the fluids will help wash out those toxins and get the kidneys working again.
CHETRY: Just amazing. We wish her the best, certainly.
Sanjay, we're going to check in with you next hour as well about food and whether it's getting where it needs to go. Thanks so much, Sanjay.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back in 90 seconds.
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