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American Morning

Last Chance for Health Reform?; SeaWorld's Devastating Loss; Bye, Bye Hummer; More Than Just Lines On A Map

Aired February 25, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Glad you're with us on AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday, February 25th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us.

Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming up in the next 15 minutes.

Democrats and Republicans together in the same room discussing health care reform on national television, and President Obama is serving as the emcee. It all gets started in just two hours' time, but already members of both parties are asking, why bother?

CHETRY: Plus, back to back winter blasts round one already hit the northeast. Now, it's on to round two. By the time it's over, some places could be buried under feet of snow. Our Rob Marciano was tracking it all from the extreme weather center coming up.

ROBERTS: And SeaWorld suspending all of its killer whale shows today after one of the park's star attractions turned on its trainer and killed in front of a horrified audience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTORIA BINIAK, EYEWITNESS (via telephone): It took off very fast and then it came around on the glass, jumped up and grabbed the trainer by the waist, and started shaking her violently and her shoe was floating and then sirens immediately started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So, what went wrong? And could it have been prevented? We'll get some insight when we talk with the worker at SeaWorld in Orlando. He's the curator of the park.

In two hour's time, President Obama and leaders of both major parties will assemble in one room to debate health care reform for six hours on national television. There are four topics on the agenda: controlling costs, insurance reforms, reducing the deficit, and expanding coverage. The summit, which some believe is nothing more than just a dog and pony show, could be the administration's last chance for a bipartisan deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The American people are tired of watching the two parties simply sit up here in Washington, D.C., and fight each other. I think it's time that we did something on behalf of them.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: The president has taken a Senate and House bill that are enormously unpopular with the American people, reduced it to an 11-page summary, we don't even have an accurate score or cost adjustment from the Congressional Budget Office, and he said that he's not going to shelf these unpopular bills and start over again and work with Republicans to come up with a consensus bill. So, I do think that the pundits are right, this is about theater. This is not about substance, unfortunately.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

ROBERTS: A lot of people are calling today's televised health care summit nothing more than theater of the absurd, politicians grandstanding in front of the cameras.

Let's bring on our Ed Henry. He's live outside the White House now.

And how will average Americans, Ed, be impacted by what happens today?

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what the president is trying to do, John, when you talk to his top advisors, it gets some momentum finally. He realizes time is really running out on this effort and we've been saying that for some time. But he really does have to -- by his own estimation -- move back to jobs. That's what he did when he reset things in the State of the Union a few weeks ago, and now, yet, here we are with health care reform back on the front burner.

So, I think what many Americans probably are wondering is this going to get done or not, and what are we going to get from these talks.

When you talk to the president's top advisers, they don't believe there will be some sort of eureka moment where after months and months of debate, both sides will magically find some formula. But they do believe that beyond just -- as you say -- theater of the absurd, that this will be an honest exchange of ideas, and then if the Republicans don't want to meet the president half way, it's very clear they are ready to move forward with what's known as reconciliation, this maneuver where they'll only need majority votes.

And the bottom line here inside the White House, is they believe they have at least 50 votes plus Vice President Biden in the Senate to get that through. They are more unsure about the House and whether they have 218 majority votes to pass this health measure through without Republican votes, largely because conservative Democrats in House are just not onboard yet, John. ROBERTS: All right. Ed, let's talk about deadlines here and timetables. Remember, last year, the president said he wanted a deal before the August recess. That deadline went by. Then he said he wanted it by the end of the year. That deadline went by.

What do you hearing now about the president's new target date for getting a deal done?

HENRY: Well, you're absolutely. One down deadline after another was missed. And so, they kind of learn their lesson and the president is not going to issue a deadline or ultimatum today, I'm told by top aides. But instead, they are looking at a new target, of the end of March.

And the reason they picked that date is that Democratic leaders, I'm told, privately telling this White House that they, you know, go on recess for Easter at the end of March, into early April. And when they come back from that, they really do want to focus just on jobs and some of the other spending bills that piled up there in the House and Senate.

So, if they don't get it a deal done basically between now and the end of March, Democratic leaders are warning the White House they'll have to move on. So, the clock is ticking. They essentially have 30 days from this meeting here today and that's why there is so much pressure on the president, John.

ROBERTS: It's interesting the way these deadlines always bat up against congressional breaks, isn't it, Ed?

HENRY: Absolutely.

ROBERTS: All right. Ed Henry for us this morning -- Ed, thanks so much.

HENRY: Thanks, John.

ROBERTS: And coming up at the bottom of the hour, David Gergen and Candy Crowley, whether the president can get health care passed, the GOP's goal line defense, and what will be left for you in the war- torn final version? We'll find out.

CHETRY: Well, there's a lot of buzz on the Internet this morning about the new logo that's being used by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. Here's a look at it. Some people think that the circular red, white and blue design looks a lot like President Obama's campaign logo. Others were critical of the crescent and star look, claiming that it's similar symbol to Islam. The Defense Department calls the criticism ridiculous.

ROBERTS: It's similar except it's totally different. Oh, well.

The ball is now in the president's court. The commander in chief has a formal investigation for a friendly game of basketball against Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. The mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts, wants to host the match-up. Senator Brown has already accepted. He first issued the hoop challenge to the president after winning Ted Kennedy's seat. The White House says the invitation is being studied.

CHETRY: There you go. It would be great, though, if he said yes.

ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely. I'd love to see that.

CHETRY: First, the health care summit and then the big face-off on the hard court.

ROBERTS: They could both wear those little pins, too.

CHETRY: That's right.

Well, let's check in with Rob Marciano. He's been tracking what is going to be a big wallop for much of the east coast and beyond, another storm. We're already seeing wintry mix, I guess you could say, in Columbus Circle this morning.

Hey, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys.

Yes, a little bit wet there but the snow is beginning to mix in. This is slightly different than the three other storms that have come through the northeast because we have to deal with a little bit of warm air just trying to sneak in and the fact it's going to sit down and spin in the same spot pretty much for about two days.

Here it is right now, still developing, actually. The rain and the warm air is definitely filtering in on the eastern fringes of this storm. Temperatures above freezing in New York and Hartford, right around the freezing mark in Albany, which saw its fair share of snow from the last storm that came through. But it looks like the snow line is beginning to march off to the east, towards the Jersey Shore, where most of Jersey is in the form of snow right now. And you can see the abundant amount of moisture streaming into this system. And the low itself, center of it, is still far down to the south.

Six to 12 is what we expect in the Philly to New York corridor. More wet -- heavy snow in New York than in Philly. And then upstate, in north and west of the city, 12 to 24 inches expected, blizzard-like conditions. I should mention that east of the New York-Connecticut border, flood watches are out for heavy rain expected there. So, this storm has got just about every facet you can imagine as we wrap up the month of February in fine winter form.

We'll talk more details about the storm itself in about 30 minutes.

John, Kiran, back up to you.

ROBERTS: Rob, thanks. We'll see you soon. So, Rob mentioned the Jersey Shore. And there's a lot of theories out there about why this storm has been so ferocious. Is it global warming? Is it El Nino? Combination of all of that?

Late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel has his own theory about what's happening in Jersey Shore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST: I'll tell you what, I'm glad we're not on the east coast right now, no matter how good the pizza is. Another big storm is on the way. At least five inches are expected in New York and New England. Some areas are expecting up to 30 inches of snow over the next few days. I think it's pretty clear now that God is punishing us for "Jersey Shore," right?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: He's talking about the much maligned yet loved --

ROBERTS: And rightfully so.

CHETRY: -- reality show.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: There you go. All right. Maybe the situation can (INAUDIBLE).

ROBERTS: You know, I have to confess -- I know nothing about that show --

CHETRY: You're better off.

ROBERTS: -- and I have no inclination to learn anything about it, either.

CHETRY: You are better off.

All right. Well, still ahead: we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to be talking more about the shocking attack, a killer whale attack at SeaWorld. We're going to be speaking with Chuck Tompkins, who is the curator for the zoological operations at SeaWorld in Orlando, about what went wrong, and whether or not there'll be any changes after this horrific attack.

Eight minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Right now, it's 10 1/2 minutes past the hour.

SeaWorld is making the call to shut down all killer whale shows today after the sudden and frightening attack at their park in Orlando. SeaWorld's star attraction, a killer whale named Tilikum, or nicknamed "Tili," killed veteran Dawn Brancheau yesterday. It happened right after one of the shows. Witnesses say that the orca actually grabbed Brancheau and pulled her into the water. And a lot of people are asking what went wrong this morning.

I'm joined now by Chuck Tompkins, the curator of zoological operations at SeaWorld in Orlando.

Chuck, thanks for being with us this morning.

CHUCK TOMPKINS, CURATOR OF ZOOLOGICAL OPERATIONS, SEAWORLD: Thank you.

CHETRY: I'm sure it's not easy for you guys today, and this is a tragedy, of course, for so many reasons. But if you could clear up for us some of the conflicting reports about whether the trainer, Dawn, fell into the tank or whether she was actually pulled into the tank by the whale. Do you anymore on what exactly may have happened?

TOMPKINS: Yes, we do. We know fairly closely what happened.

She was working with Tilikum right by the side of the pool. He's not an animal that we get into water with. She was working him on dry deck. She was leaning over and rubbing his head and she had a long ponytail that brushed in front of her and apparently got in front of his nose, he probably felt it and he grabbed that ponytail and that's when he pulled her into the water.

CHETRY: And do you know what happened after that that led to her death?

TOMPKINS: Well, she was pulled into the water and underwater for an extended period of time. So, I -- at this point, we don't have any more information until we investigate exactly what happened.

CHETRY: And when you say that he's not an animal that the trainers work with in the water, is that because he -- he's not easy to work in that environment? He's so big. As we know, flippers alone are six feet in span. Is it because of his personality or is it just something that they don't do in this particular show?

TOMPKINS: Well, he's a very large animal. He's 12,000 tons. He's our largest male killer whale. And, obviously, just because of his size alone, we are very careful how we worked him.

We have very specific training procedures and protocols that we use in interacting with this animal. And obviously, we need to evaluate those protocols and we're going to make any change necessary to make sure that in the future, our trainer's safety is of the utmost importance.

CHETRY: There were some people that were watching the show, obviously, because this has happened right after. And some of them said that there seemed to be odd behavior going on, some of them were familiar with seeing the show before and said that two of the bigger whales seemed to be, quote, "flipping out."

Were there any warning signs before the incident that perhaps they just weren't in the mood that day or maybe something wasn't quite right in the tank?

TOMPKINS: No, that's inaccurate. We -- he just finished a really good session with Dawn. Dawn was one of his most experienced trainers and had one of the best working relationships with this animal. She had done a great session with him. He seemed to enjoy what he was doing at the time.

Nothing would indicate that there was a problem whatsoever, not with him or any other animal in our environment.

CHETRY: You know, we talked about the unpredictability of wild animals, because even though they're trained and they gain some sort of trust and bond with their trainers, I mean, at the end of the day, they are still wild animals. A larger issue: Should they be -- should we all be rethinking whether or not it makes sense to keep these large animals that usually have hundreds of miles of sea water to explore in captivity?

TOMPKINS: Well, I think what we need to remember is we have a tremendous track record with these animals at SeaWorld. We've done millions and millions of interactions with our killer whales and a very -- with a very small percentage of problems.

So, we need to remember that it's really useful having these animals here because our job is to learn about them, obviously, share them with the public and educate them to what they're all about. I think we need to remember that this is the first time in 46 years that we've ever had an incident like this with a trainer.

CHETRY: Some people are asking about Tilikum's presence there at all given the past. One was an incident where apparently he was involved in the death of his trainer, along with some other whales. And there was another incident when apparently somebody climbed into the pool or the tank and also was found dead on his back.

Should there be some rethinking about whether or not Tili himself should be there?

TOMPKINS: No. Well, obviously, we need to evaluate this whole situation. But to refer back to those incidents, one occurred long before SeaWorld actually owned him. The one where somebody got into the pool at night when we weren't around, we don't know exactly what happened. But those two incidents really don't have anything to do with this one.

And to mark him as a killer is very unfair. I mean, yes, he's a very large animal. He's -- just by the nature of being a killer whale, we have to manage him very, very carefully. And like I said before, we are going to continue to focus on, from this point on, making sure that we evaluate all of our safety protocols, making sure that we provide the safest environment we can for our trainers working around them. And we are not going to move forward until we can make sure that that happens for our trainers.

And you know, one of the most important things that we want to -- out of respect for Dawn and her family, we just want to take time to respect her, and that's why currently right now, we are not doing any shows at SeaWorld, and we are not until we can assure ourselves and our trained staff that we have the safest environment.

CHETRY: Yes there was a former contractor telling the Orlando Sentinel that Tilikum was kept isolated from some of the other killer whales and also from the trainers because of his violent history. Is that the case?

TOMPKINS: That is not accurate at all. I worked with Tilikum, many, many years. He is a male and there are sometimes when males are kept separate from the females. But not for extended times. And that's our choice - it's the females choices. The females love having them around when they are sexually active, and when they are not. Sometimes they like to have him in a separate area. But he performs regularly with the females, so there is a variety in his day where he is with different people and different animals all the time.

CHETRY: And he is also in the water with trainers?

TOMPKINS: No, he is not. We never got in the water with this particular animal because of his size and his previous history. We made sure that we tried to provide an environment where we put our trainers in the safest situation, and we felt like getting in the water was not something that we needed to do with a 12,000 pound animal.

CHETRY: So you acknowledge that there is something about his history gave you guys cause whether or not you blame him for the prior incidence, it was something you were not willing to take a chance with?

TOMPKINS: Oh absolutely. I mean we didn't ignore those situations. Again, it's a combination of the previous history and also his size. Remember, our normal killer whales, the females, weigh about 6,000 pounds, he is 12,000 pounds. He is just a really, really large animal. Just for the size alone, it would be dangerous to get in the water with him.

CHETRY: So how does SeaWorld plan to deal with this wily Tili in the future?

TOMPKINS: Well obviously we need to evaluate the situation and figure out the best possible way for the trainers to interact with him safely, and there is a way of doing that, I'm sure. We'll figure it out. He still needs to be taken care of. We need to mentally and physically stimulate him he is a social animal. So we want to make sure we can take care of him in that respect. But obviously we want to review this process, and as time goes on, I think we'll figure out the best way to take care of him and again make sure that our trainers are safe.

CHETRY: Well all of us are very sorry for the devastating loss that you guys are all dealing with. Thank you for your time this morning, Chuck Tompkins, he's the curator of the zoological operations at SeaWorld. We appreciate your time.

TOMPKINS: Thank you.

ROBERTS: It's 18 minutes after the hour. Another brand under the GM monitor going down, this time it's the Hummer. We will tell you what is going on, coming up next. Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-one minutes now after the hour. Christine Romans here "Minding Your Business" this morning. And we are talking about the death of a couple things, first of all conspicuous consumption.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Conspicuous consumption, what is more conspicuous than the Hummer.

ROBERTS: Oh so these two things kind of go together.

ROMANS: Oh these two things go together. First let's talk about the Hummer. The Hummer, rest in peace, Hummer.

The GM was trying to negotiate a deal with the Chinese for Hummer, but the Chinese are still focusing on small cars. So Hummer will close. This is a brand will be gone.

This is the brand, that pretty much personifies what happen in the 2,000, those awful auts. Look they sold 875 of these things in 2000. 71,000 at the peak. In 2006 when everyone thought that the world was so awesome and it was pooled to be a conspicuous consumer. 71,000 of these huge 6.2 liter v8 space on a military vehicle were sold, and 9,000 last year, which was down 67 percent from the year before. And now the Hummer is going bye-bye.

ROBERTS: Well it was really the gas prices that killed it, right?

ROMANS: It was gas prices but -

ROBERTS: When gas prices got up around $4 a gallon, who wanted to buy one of these.

ROMANS: But I feel everyone is downsizing. I mean the world is downsizing and they are downsizing also on their house. On home prices is still falling. The new report today from moody.com Pfizer division, the moody.com shows that you can expect home prices to fall further. The economists there expect a 6 percent further price decline in the average home price by September 2011. That's after 27 percent in the past three years. And Miami, if you are waking up in Miami, I am sorry to give you the bad news that the folks over at Pfizer expect big price declines for Miami, for other parts of Florida. It's -- some of these places they are expecting the free fall to continue and bottom out. One reason -- ROBERTS: Well okay then, tell us the figure you told us off camera?

ROMANS: 29 percent further.

ROBERTS: Another 29 percent?

ROMANS: Yes. Yes, yes.

And a couple of reasons here, I mean look, they are still a lot of properties and people are in these properties and they are never going to be able to afford the house that they are in. You got job losses, so you can't afford any kind of a mortgage if you don't have a job. Also the economist there are saying that these mortgage servicers are starting to figure out now, two years into it, who will never be able to pay these bills. There are still, hundreds of thousands of people in homes, that even if you modify their loans, they are never going to be able to afford the homes they are in.

CHETRY: So the impact of the first home buyer tax credit, which is also interesting, people who were able to sort of got in the game and now they are starting to see that there might not be any potential buyers left?

ROMANS: And there's a feeling that those people cleared out the bold, you know, I always call it, the bold, the solvent, and the brave, they cleared out this first-time starter homes, with that $8,000 tax credit, they did exactly what they are suppose to do with low interest rates. They went in but now where is the next wave going to come from.

These folks here are predicting a slow summer and that's why prices are going decline lately.

CHETRY: All right, you have a Romans numeral for us this hour?

ROMANS: I do and it has to do with downsizing. And I love this number so much, I hope it's not too confusing, 49 percent. What in our life is 49 percent bigger by the peak than it was a generation ago?

CHETRY: The size of our home?

ROMANS: The size of our home. From 197--

CHETRY: One right. One right.

ROMANS: Kiran Chetry, you are correct! It is -- a house in 1970 was 1,500 square feet. By the peak in 2007, a little after the peak, 2,277 square feet. We - drove bigger cars, these Hummers right. We started building houses with more, more parking spaces and more bedrooms than people would ever live in those houses.

CHETRY: I mean you know your parents - I mean not my parents but my mom and her sister shared a room. Everybody shared a bedroom, all the siblings. ROMANS: Oh the split level ranch. But you know, I am just telling you, like everything got big in the bubble, and now the bubble popped and we are downsizing and getting smaller and home prices keep getting lower.

CHETRY: How do you downsize a studio apartment in Manhattan?

ROBERTS: It's called a closet. As for me I grew up in a cave and had two dinosaur garages.

CHETRY: And had cash.

ROMANS: And you had your own cash. You could not get a credit card back then.

ROBERTS: Yes, so we are paying for it in stone. Health care on the brink, David Gergen and Candy Crowley weigh in on today's health care summit. You would want to hear what they have to say coming right up. It's 25 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

All this week the full resources of CNN are looking at Washington gridlock, in our special series "Broken Government" and today we are investigating gerrymandering, it is an old political trick, but simply put it means, dividing up local voting districts to give one party or the other a political advantage.

ROBERTS: The way that the lines are drawn can swing an entire elections. But there is one possible solution, and that is bring in an independent commission to redraw the districts, and do it in a much more neutral fashion. This shows just how bad things have gotten. Check out Maryland's second district, here. At its longest point it is 50 miles and at its narrowest point it's 1,700 feet.

CHETRY: It really gets ridiculous when you break some of these down. For more we sent out our Jason Carroll to get another oddly shaped district, this one in California and he is live from our L.A. bureau this morning. Hey, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.

You know Kiran there are a number of experts who say if you want to know why the elected officials and Washington can't get anything done take a look at gerrymandering, and California is just one of several states where, if you want to know about gerrymandering, it is an interesting state to explore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Partisan bickering, Republicans and Democrats unable to find common grounds, searching for reasons why? California State Senator Alan Lowenthal says before looking in Washington, try looking much closer to home, in your own district.

(on camera): Do you think most people out there, who -- wherever they may be, really have a keen sense of how their districts are drawn?

ALAN LOWENTHAL (D), CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE: No, this is very boring. This is a yawner. Most people don't really care about this.

CARROLL (voice-over): Lowenthal was working to change an old practice, when he says it has taken place next to his own district. Gerrymandering.

LOWENTHAL: It's all been designed to protect the incumbents. People think they are having a vote of choice but they don't.

CARROLL: Gerrymandering is named after Massachusetts governor, Eldridge Gerry, who signed a bill in the early 1800's redrawing a district looking like a salamander to give his party an advantage. Centuries later, it is still happening. Illinois' fourth district, held by a Democrat, carved like a Pac-Man, Pennsylvania's 18th, held by a Republican, a war shack blot. Lowenthal, a Democrat says the shape of the district next to him, a sore thumb.

LOWENTHAL: Is it true my district was carved around my house? Yes, it was.

CARROLL: This is Lowenthal's home in Long Beach California, just across the street is the 46th district. It used to look like this but it was changed in 2001 making it a Republican stronghold. How? Using a narrow strip on largely Democratic Long Beach to link to traditionally Republican communities, Costa Mesa and Palos Verdes.

To illustrate just how narrow this section of the district is, I'm going to stand right in the middle of Temple Avenue. If you look at where that stop sign is, that's where the district starts.

To show where the ends, look where the water is beyond the stoplight. This section of the district is one block wide, about 300 yards.

And 46th district GOP congressman Dana Rohrbacher did not agree to an interview, but Joel Epstein did, and he is just a voter, a Democrat who lives in Rohrbacher's district, and just across the street from Lowenthal.

JOEL EPSTEIN, VOTING DEMOCRAT: I vote, but I know my vote is really worthless.

CARROLL: Epstein blames Republicans and Democrats who hatched the deal the change the district and, he says, protect incumbents.

EPSTEIN: There is no new blood in Congress because of this, and nothing is getting done these days.

CARROLL: Redistricting experts are not surprised by Congress' unwillingness to compromise. (on camera): These people don't have to worry about being reelected back home because of how their district is drawn.

DOUGLAS JOHNSON, REDISTRICTING EXPERT: Exactly. The grassroots movements, whether the tea party today or the Obama movement last year, you would think they have more influence. But the incumbents don't have to answer to them.

CARROLL (voice-over): Lowenthal is responding by pushing for an initiative to have independent commissions re-draw California's Congressional districts.

LOWENTHAL: I think we will draw our boundaries. This is a wonderful strength of our democracy. We move forward two steps and back one step.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Well, he is hoping to take another step forward. He hopes that initiative will get on California's November ballot. Kiran, it will be an uphill battle.

CHETRY: Yes, I imagine so. Seeing it happen for so long that it doesn't seem like it's changing anytime soon. But very interesting, Jason, thank you so much.

ROBERTS: We are checking our top stories. It's being called a historic day in the battle of Marjah, Afghanistan. The Afghan government has taken official control of the southern Taliban stronghold. The massive assault now in its second week is the largest military operation since the war started in 2001.

CHETRY: The east coast getting hit with the second storm in two days. Yesterday's blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow from New York to New England. One to two more feet of snow expected to paralyze parts of the northeast.

ROBERTS: Facebook is working to fix a glitch that was sending private messages between users to large groups of people. The company says the problem seems to be hitting some of its first and longest account holders. It was caused by a bug in some new code that they recently put in the Web site.

Some people complained about the snag on Twitter.

We're just 90 minutes away from what could be a do or die discussion on healthcare. The president is hosting a summit with both parties at Blair House. He has already come closer than any president that tried to change the system, and this could be it.

Joining us now from Washington is CNN senior political analyst David Gergen and "STATE OF THE UNION" host Candy Crowley. Good morning to both of you. David, there were suggestions that this could be more about political theater than an actual forum for solutions. What do you think? DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I have talked to people on both sides, and nobody expects a big breakthrough agreement coming out of this. But nonetheless the conversation is important.

The White House believes that millions of Americans want to tune in today to get a better sense of what the debate is all about. But very important politically is this could change the dynamics of the health care debate and make it more likely that a bill passes or much more likely that it doesn't. So a good deal hangs on this politically.

ROBERTS: The president, Candy, has multiple audiences he is speaking to today. He will talk to independent voters and Democratic members of the House who some people he is trying to urge to pass the Senate bill and then he has health care reform.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Exactly. It is not just the president. The Democrats understand that they cannot go into the election this fall without some form of health care reform, even if it's the scaled down version that so many in the House that Democrats don't like.

So there is that. They come from that understanding. So there is an urgency now about this, and I think the president is not talking about pass this, he's also talking to the dispirited liberals who think why didn't we go and push for the public option, for everything, we had the numbers.

He needs to keep them going as well. The Democrats have a commonality with the president, and that is they have to pass something. If it doesn't come out with any Republican support, they certainly, I think the Democrats will move ahead in any way that they can. The question remains if they have the votes in the House at this point.

ROBERTS: And on that point, David, is it possible for the president to convince recalcitrant Democrats in the House to support the Senate bill?

GERGEN: No. The Republicans are fairly united on the notion that the best way to go forward is to get rid of the current bill, start over and come up with a smaller bill like Candy described.

And I must say they go into this with some public support behind them. There was a CNN poll released yesterday that found only 25 percent of the public wants to have this bill passed, 48 percent say start over, another 25 percent say let's not do health care at all for a while, and let's get back to jobs.

So the president in that sense is trying to change public opinion as well as opinion among his own Democrats.

ROBERTS: Candy, some talk that the Senate in order to get something different than they have now passed may resort to their reconciliation process, the budgetary process in which they only need a simple majority to get things through. Is that a wise thing for Democrats to do?

CROWLEY: Well, many of them think it's wiser than not having a bill at all because the rules of the Senate are just lost on the public at this point.

I think that the Senate will be far more interested in what David is talking about, which is when you have over 70 percent of people going start all over or just stop completely, that's a political problem for Democrats.

I don't think they are worried that much about reconciliation if they use that, that just being a fast track to get around Republican opposition.

So the question is whether there are enough Democrats to actually support that, because it's a time-honored institution, reconciliation, and they would be going down -- it has been used before. Let's say this is not something new, and there are some Democrats who think we don't want to go down this road because we may not always be in the majority.

ROBERTS: David, there are some Democrats who suggest that after today's health care summit the president really needs to get out there and pull the cart along. And if the bill does not get to his desk to sign, it's his fault. What do you think?

GERGEN: I think the action has passed to him. The Democrats are going to look to him to take the lead in the conversation today. They will tend to hold back a little bit and look to him to outmaneuver the Republicans even as the Republicans try to outmaneuver him.

But when this is over and this day is over, the rumor in Washington is the president will wait a couple days and say I heard all the voices, here is what I will support, and I'm going to embrace one of the big ideas from the Republicans, namely we are going to do major about malpractice reform.

And if they now won't come along, it proves they don't want a health care bill at all. We're going to pass it with Democrats.

And the preferred option at the White House in the moment plan a is to go with reconciliation. If they don't have the votes, it's to go back to the scaled back version. There is no plan c for doing nothing.

ROBERTS: All right, we'll continue to watch it and see how it goes today. David Gergen, Candy Crowley, it's great to see you today, thanks.

GERGEN: Thank you.

CROWLEY: Thanks.

ROBERTS: The only place to watch the healthcare debate is right here. CNN's live coverage of the summit starts at 10:00 a.m. eastern. CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, "Building Up America." Some stay-at-home moms have found opportunity in hard times. Our Tom Foreman will show us one woman on the CNN Express.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: I love that song.

ROBERTS: I have not heard that for a long, long time.

CHETRY: It brings back the good old days.

Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. All this week we've been bringing you stories about how people are building up America, and today we have another success story.

ROBERTS: It's a business that's been giving working moms a chance to bring home the bacon without ever leaving the house. Our Tom Foreman is live in Austin this morning, another stop along the CNN Express, and he's with us.

Good morning, Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, how are you doing? We are here at the University of Texas where lots of young folks are learning how to enter the tough business world, and they can take a lesson from a business right here in town. It's very new, really, compared to other businesses.

And yet it has done something that really trumped this recession here. It looked for a hole in the market that wasn't being filled and resources that were not being used as well as they might be. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: The morning commute for Julie Barrett is only as far as the kitchen, where she grabs coffee, puts out the cat, and starts reading what other people write on the Internet?

KATHERINE SHEPPARD, BAZAAR VOICE: I feel like I have the best of both worlds, that I contribute to the family income and I also get to participate in my children's lives.

FOREMAN: It's real work for real pay for dozens of stay-at-home moms who have found new income, purpose, and satisfaction in a company called Bazaar Voice.

SHEPPARD: I am a single mom with four kids. I wanted to be home, and I needed something that would allow me to contribute to my husband's income, especially in these economic times.

FOREMAN: What does Bazaar Voice do? Bret Hurt started the company, and it runs those consumer product review sections that you see on company websites when you want to buy a TV, a camera, a car. BRETT HURT, BAZAAR VOICE: And you have to make sure that that conversation doesn't have anything racists or profane or some kind of religious statements.

FOREMAN (on camera): So you're not editing it for comment, people can say whatever they want about the products.

BRETT HURT, BAZAAR VOICE: Absolutely.

FOREMAN: As long as it's legal and --

HURT: Right, right, yes I mean, like any community, you want to have some standards.

FOREMAN (voice-over): This is big business. In under five years, Bazaar Voice has picked up almost 800 clients, suites of offices with gongs and game rooms all in the middle of a global recession.

HURT: So in this office we have about 250. As I mentioned, we have quite a few that work at home.

FOREMAN: Bret's simple philosophy, care about the workers and they will care about the company. Need proof? The vacation policy is this. Take as much as you need.

HURT: And in four years and nine months of business, treating people with that amount of great respect, not a single person has abused it, not once.

So how many volumes of "War and Peace" have you read? With the user generate contexts.

PATTI SCHUMACHER, BAZAAR VOICE: This is the first shot I've ever worked out in 30 years of career where I feel like I can plan my work schedule around my family rather than the other way around.

FOREMAN: The result? Just listen.

How many of you are optimistic about the future of your area right now?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: It was really pretty overwhelming, the response of people there. These are folks who are genuinely excited about their company and excited about their prospects. And I should point out it's not just the stay-at-home moms but also stay-at-home dads or people who are unmarried who have no children who work for this company.

But these are real working jobs that can be done at home and what these folks saw was an opportunity. They knew a lot of skilled people are out there and for one reason or another they can't be at a regular office in this recessionary time. There a lot of things to tend to but they should still be put to work when they can help out for the good of everyone.

And that's a huge measure of success for this company which is 500 times bigger than they thought it was going to be by this time in its growth.

ROBERTS: It's great to see that sense of optimism in these economic times, no question about it.

So obviously, Tom, we're still waiting to see the barbecue and I doubt that we will but if you've got another photo for us today of you eating something somewhere?

FOREMAN: No, no. We worked so late for you last night, we just had to stop after the dancing and we had to go home after that. But you know, hang in there. Go easy on the oatmeal tomorrow and maybe we can get it to you in time for breakfast.

ROBERTS: All right.

CHETRY: Although you have an excuse tomorrow with a big storm heading this way, so or perhaps it would get disrupted, even if you did send it, which we know you're not going to Tom.

ROBERTS: Nothing is going to interrupt.

FOREMAN: Yes, guys it's warmed up nicely here. I hope that snow is ok.

ROBERTS: Terrific, I hope you enjoy the weather Tom. Great series this week by the way, I really enjoyed it.

FOREMAN: And the barbeque.

ROBERTS: All right, as Kiran was saying winter fury about to unleash itself on the northeast. Our Rob Marciano is tracking the weather forecast and most importantly the travel forecast for you.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: While you're getting hit with a boom, boom and we are getting hit with a whole of a lot of snow as well. Albany, we've got rain and 33 degrees right now and lots of fog and low hanging clouds; rain, snow, lots of wind and a high of 38 later on today.

Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather across the country and we've got a ton of it in the northeast.

Rob, the question everybody has today is just how bad is it going to be?

MARCIANO: It's going to get worse, I can tell you that. But I think if you live in New York City, back through Philly, you're not going to see two to three feet of snow. How is that for optimism? And you know, and the saying that it's not crazy because of the winter that we've had but everything is relative.

All right, let's talk about the radar. It is snowing now in New York, you saw that picture out of Columbus Circle earlier in the program. Today we're seeing rain earlier (AUDIO GAP) -- Philadelphia seeing snow for the most part there from the beginning. Temperatures east of say, the Hudson River are into the lower mid-30s. Actually you're going to see some -- potentially some flooding rains across parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Temperatures right now in the Albany area right around the freezing mark. So a wet snow for them as well. So the rain snow line is going to be the tricky part of this forecast as well as the strength of this system.

Philadelphia seeing some snow, heavier snow is beginning to fall just to the west of the Jersey shore right along the immediate shore line. It is mostly in the form of rain. And the rain snow line is pretty much is going to -- kind of fluctuate back and forth right through here.

And New York will see snow and changing over to rain at times and back over to snow. And that's going to be the ongoing issue. It will be a big issue as you can imagine where some of the airports, Boston, New York and Philly will see the most affected I think, D.C. and Atlanta to a lesser extent.

And right now we're actually seeing some delays at Philly, an hour and 50 minutes delays and 45 minute delays in New York City.

How much snow do we expect to see? This is the 48 hour forecast for snow; you see the brighter colors are mostly north and west of New York City. Scranton could easily see over 18 or 20 inches of snow. Parts of upstate New York could see between one and two feet of snow.

And also, blizzard conditions potentially tonight as the wind starts to whip around us. We'll also see big waves across the shoreline. Boston, you're going to be all rain but big winds and big waves for you. And then New York to Philly, I think will be in the six to 12 inch range.

So if you need some comfort food, Coney Island has got just what you've -- what you've ordered up. Brooklyn, New York, this hot dog, apparently they're estimating it to be 140 years old under a Coney Island there, 140 years ago with the original receipt. This hot dog discovered from Feltman's kitchen and it's going to go into the museum.

So if you guys get hungry and you just need some comfort food, a little bit of (INAUDIBLE) mustard on that poppy and it should do you well right through end of this storm.

ROBERTS: What happened? Did somebody leave it in the freezer?

MAR: Apparently so.

CHETRY: That just shows you how long it takes to digest a hot dog.

ROBERTS: It just goes to show that you know, if there's ever a nuclear war, that two things are going to be left, cockroaches and hot dogs.

CHETRY: Yummy.

MARCIANO: Not even cryogenically preserve.

CHETRY: There you go.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: See you guys.

CHETRY: I'm so hungry now. Thanks, Rob.

All right, well, this one is burning question about health care reform; Dr. Sanjay Gupta opens up his mail bag with some answers for you coming up.

It's 53 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

Fifty-six minutes past the hour. That's time for your "AM House Call". And President Obama's health care summit kicks off in just a few hour, two hours -- no just an hour from now, actually. And you can watch it live right here on CNN. The whole thing is going to be broadcast as well on C-Span.

ROBERTS: We expect that there's going to be plenty of partisan bickering there. But what will all of this really mean for you?

For some answers, we're opening Dr. Sanjay Gupta's mailbag and he's with us from Atlanta this morning.

Good morning, doc.

Our first question comes to us from MC Mitchell who asks -- Why is dental insurance not considered part of health insurance?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's a good question, and one that we get quite a bit. And it's true. For a lot of insurance plans out there, dental is not considered part of your actual health insurance.

A lot of people focused on this. In fact, we found just last Friday, President Obama did address this particular issue. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is my hope that we can include dental care in the various proposals that we are putting forward. At minimum, I think it's very important that we have dental care for our kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Let me break it down like this. The senate bill that we have been talking about for some time now which serves as a template for what the White House is going to be talking about today, does talk specifically about increasing dental coverage for kids, 21 and younger. The results of this discussion of expanding who qualifies for Medicare, so more people, including kids, could get basic dental coverage.

But as things stand now -- to MC's point here -- about 1 in 5 kids really have no dental coverage at all, which is a problem because of this relationship between your teeth and the rest of your body is very clear. People that have poor teeth are more likely to have heart disease, more likely to have inflammatory problems later on in life. And being able to address those problems makes a big difference and will probably save a lot of money down the road as well.

So stay tuned. We'll see what happens today with that particular issue.

CHETRY: It's interesting. They are also finding links between premature birth and other problems for babies when mothers don't have good oral hygiene.

Our next question comes from Virginia. She asks, "What will happen when there are simply not enough doctors to take care of all the patients?" This is something that you brought up or we talked to you last about, people having to go 100 miles out of their town to see an OB/GYN?

GUPTA: That's right. And with the Ob-GYN specifically related to malpractice premiums that they thought were just simply too high.

But this is a very interesting point. And we talk about health insurance reform or health reform overall, giving more people a card, an insurance card, is something that may happen as a result of all this. But as things stand now, we are probably about 16,000 primary care doctors short in this country.

So you can sort of start to figure this out. You have more people with insurance, you don't have enough doctors. What they predict -- I mean, if you look at some of these projections -- is that over the next decade or so they could be 40,000 to 50,000 doctors short.

They talked about some plans to try and improve that, creating more incentives for people to go into primary care, and increasing reimbursement to primary care doctors as well. But this is a really good point. Having a card alone doesn't matter unless there is a doctor to see you.

ROBERTS: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with some good answers for us this morning. Doc, always great to see you. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Just a minute now to the top of the hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: That's going to do it for us. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can continue the conversation about today's stories by going to our blog, cnn.com/amFix.

ROBERTS: And the news continues here on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM" -- good morning, Kyra.